Impaired lung function and lung cancer risk in 461 183 healthy individuals: a cohort study

Background It has been known that smoking and various lung diseases including lung cancer can cause lung function impairment. However, the impact of different types of lung function impairments, such as preserved ratio impaired spirometry (PRISm) and airflow obstruction (AO), on the incidence and mortality of lung cancer in both general and never-smoker populations remains unclear. We wished to examine the effect of lung function impairments on lung cancer risks.Methods This was a retrospective cohort study (1 January 1994 to 31 December 2017) of individuals from a health surveillance programme in Taiwan who underwent baseline spirometry tests at the entry point. PRISm was defined as an FEV1/FVC (forced expiratory volume in 1 s/forced vital capacity) ratio >0.7 and FEV1