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LUNG FUNCTION AND EXERCISE PERFORMANCE OF HEALTHY CARIBBEAN MEN AND WOMEN OF AFRICAN ETHNIC ORIGIN
Author(s) -
Miller G. J.,
Cotes J. E.,
Hall A. M.,
Salvosa C. B.,
Ashworth A.
Publication year - 1972
Publication title -
quarterly journal of experimental physiology and cognate medical sciences
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
SCImago Journal Rank - 0.925
H-Index - 101
eISSN - 1469-445X
pISSN - 0033-5541
DOI - 10.1113/expphysiol.1972.sp002166
Subject(s) - medicine , demography , ethnic group , allowance (engineering) , lung volumes , lung function , residual volume , african descent , pulmonary function testing , lung , physical therapy , gerontology , mechanical engineering , sociology , anthropology , engineering
Lung function, body muscle, levels of habitual activity and exercise performance were measured in young adult men and women of African origin in Jamaica and Trinidad. The results were compared with those of men and women of European descent studied by the same methods in Leeds, England. Lung function was very similar in Jamaicans and Trinidadians. Vital capacity was smaller in Africans than in Europeans and smaller in women than in men, even after standardization for age and height. There was no sex difference in residual volume. The single breath transfer factor was larger in men than women but there was no ethnic difference. The effects of age and height on lung function appeared to be similar in the two ethnic groups. Exercise tidal volume relative to minute volume was larger in Europeans than in subjects in the Caribbean but this difference disappeared when allowance was made for vital capacity. When allowance was made for differences in body muscle the heart rate during standard sub‐maximal exercise was lowest in Jamaican men and highest in Trinidadian men and Jamaican women, with English men and women intermediate. These differences may have been related to the levels of habitual activity in these groups, which were judged to have been highest in the Jamaican men. Maximal heart rate during exercise was similar in all male groups but relative to body muscle, maximal exercise performance was impaired in the subjects in the Caribbean. It is postulated that this may have been owing to the higher temperatures in Jamaica and Trinidad than those in England. We conclude that while ethnic and sex differences affect ventilatory capacity and tidal volume these are less important for maximal oxygen uptake than habitual activity, environmental temperature and body muscle.