Longitudinal decline in lung function: a community-based cohort study in Korea

• Published in: Scientific reports Vol. 9; no. 1; pp. 13614 - 8
• Main Authors: Leem, Ah Young, Park, Boram, Kim, Young Sam, Chang, Joon, Won, Sungho, Jung, Ji Ye
• Format: Journal Article
• Language: English
• Published: London Nature Publishing Group UK 20-09-2019; Nature Publishing Group
• Subjects: 692/699/1785/4037; 692/700/478/174; Adult; Aged; Bronchodilators; Chronic obstructive pulmonary disease; Cigarette smoking; Cohort analysis; Cohort Studies; Drug addiction; Female; Forced Expiratory Volume - physiology; Health risk assessment; Humanities and Social Sciences; Humans; Longitudinal Studies; Lung - physiopathology; Lung diseases; Male; Middle Aged; multidisciplinary; Obstructive lung disease; Pulmonary Disease, Chronic Obstructive - epidemiology; Pulmonary Disease, Chronic Obstructive - physiopathology; Republic of Korea - epidemiology; Respiratory function; Respiratory Function Tests - methods; Risk Factors; Science; Science (multidisciplinary); Smoking; Smoking - physiopathology; Smoking cessation; Republic of Korea
• ISSN: 2045-2322; 2045-2322
• DOI: 10.1038/s41598-019-49598-9

Progressive decline in lung function is the hallmark of chronic obstructive pulmonary disease (COPD). We aimed to assess the rate of decline in forced expiratory volume in 1 second (FEV
1
) in patients from a community cohort database in Korea. 5,865 subjects aged 40–69 years from the Ansung-Ansan cohort database I–III (2001–2006) were included in this study. We assessed the annual rate of decline in FEV
1
over time in relation to smoking status, patient sex, and presence or absence of pre-bronchodilator airflow limitation using a generalized additive mixed model. The mean follow-up duration was 3.8 years. The annual mean decline in FEV
1
in the entire cohort was significantly more rapid for men than women (31.3 mL vs 27.0 mL,
P
 = 0.003). Among men without pre-bronchodilator airflow limitation, annual mean declines in FEV
1
were 31.5, 35.5, and 40.1 mL for never smokers, former smokers (
P
 = 0.09 vs. never smokers), and current smokers (
P
 < 0.001 vs. never smokers), respectively; and 23.4, 19.7, and 33.9 mL, respectively, for men with pre-bronchodilator airflow limitation. Thus, among Korean males, smoking accelerates lung function decline over time whereas smoking cessation slows the rate of FEV
1
decline regardless of pre-bronchodilator airflow limitation. This underscores the importance of smoking cessation in Koreans.