Relationship between ventilatory function and age in master athletes and a sedentary reference population

Abstract

Ageing is accompanied with a decline in respiratory function. It is hypothesised that this may be attenuated by high physical activity levels. We performed spirometry in master athletes (71 women; 84 men; 35-86 years) and sedentary people (39 women; 45 men; 24-82 years), and calculated the predicted lung age (PLA). The negative associations of age with forced expiratory volume in 1 s (FEV1; 34 mL·year(-1)) and other ventilatory parameters were similar in controls and master athletes. FEV1pred was 9 % higher (P < 0.005) and PLA 15 % lower (P = 0.013) in athletes than controls. There were no significant differences between endurance and power athletes and sedentary people in maximal inspiratory and expiratory pressure. Neither age-graded performance nor weekly training hours were significantly related to lung age. Life-long exercise does not appear to attenuate the age-related decrease in ventilatory function. The better respiratory function in master athletes than age-matched sedentary people might be due to self-selection and attrition bias.

Fig. 1

a Training hours per week and b relationship between age-graded performance (AGP) and training hours of master athletes at different ages. FE Female endurance; FP female power; ME male endurance; MP male power. Linear regression line: training h·wk⁻¹ = −0.0759 × age (years) + 12.523; R ² = 0.0625; P = 0.014

Fig. 2

Individual data for forced expiratory volume in 1 s (FEV ₁); solid line men: FEV₁ = −0.034*age (yrs) + 5.54; R ² = 0.47; P < 0.001; broken line women: FEV₁ = −0.033 × age (years) + 4.56; R ² = 0.61; P < 0.001. FE Female endurance; FP female power; FC female control; ME male endurance; MP male power; MC male control participants. For further description of statistics, see text

Fig. 3

Forced vital capacity (FVC) in FE female endurance; FP female power; FC female control; ME male endurance; MP male power; MC male control participants

Fig. 4

Peak expiratory flow (PEF) in FE female endurance; FP female power; FC female control; ME male endurance; MP male power; MC male control participants. For description of statistics, see text

Fig. 5

Diffusion capacity as a percentage of the predicted capacity (DL,CO _pred) in FE female endurance; FP female power; ME male endurance; MP male power athletes. Broken line 100 % line

Fig. 6

a Maximal expiratory (MEP), b inspiratory (MIP) mouth pressures and c sniff nasal inspiratory (SNIP) pressure in FE female endurance; FP female power; FC female control; ME male endurance; MP male power; MC male control

Fig. 7

Correlation between maximal inspiratory mouth pressure (MEP) with a forced expiratory volume in 1 s (FEV ₁) and b peak expiratory flow (PEF) in FE: Female endurance; FP female power; FC female control; ME male endurance; MP male power; MC male control