Community Medicine Abstracts - College of Medicine and Health ...

Project No. 38 (1994)Comparison Between Smokers and Non-Smokers in Lung Function amongNurses in Al Ain, UAEStudent Authors: Batool Sayed SharafFaculty Supervisors: Prof. O. Lloyd, Dr. A. BenerAbstract:Objectives To compare smokers and non smokers in lung function and determine theinfluence of age, sex and nationality of smokers on lung function and to makepreliminary inquiries on the influence of asthma, allergic rhinitis, eczema andbronchitis on lung function test.Subjects The study population comprised of 176 nurses in Al Ain and Tawam Hospitals,Al Ain.Results 58% of males were smokers and 23.1% of females were smokers. The highestpercentage of smokers was among western 18 (48.6%) and the highest percentage ofnon-smokers was among Asians 78 (87.6%). The measured FVC for smokers was 3.52±0.75 while the predicted was 3.21 ±0.68 and the non-smokers the measured was2.94 ±0.82 while the predicted was 2.79 ± 0.51. The measured FEV1 for smokers was2.83 ±0.62 and for non-smokers was 2.46 ± 0.66 while the predicted for them was2.81 ± 0.67 and 2.41 ± 0.42 respectively. Concerning FEF25-75, the smokersachieved 3.06 ±1.06, while the non-smokers achieved 3.03 ±1.24, the predicted forthem was 3.56 ±0.69 and 3.31 ±0.50 respectively. Pulmonary parameters forsmokers were compared with non-smokers in each nationality, sex, and age group butthere was no much difference between them. This was attributed to several factors. Inasthmatic subjects they had lower FEF 25-75 value (3.04± 1.24) than the predictedfor them (3.32 ± 0.41) also they have lower PEF 374.4 ± 106.7 than that predictedfor them 397.3 ±113.5. Subjects with allergic rhinitis and eczema had also lowerFEF25-75 (2.95 ±1.24 and 3.31 ± 1.12 respectively).Conclusion Smoking is one of the causes that lead to decrease lung function. butbecause of the small sample size it was difficult to prove this in this cross-sectionalstudy. It seems that many factors affect the lung function which include: age, sex,nationality, duration of smoking, intensity of smoking, exposure to environmentalpollution, exercise, and some chest diseases.