Impact Of Continuous Sitting On Pulmonary Function In Healthy College Going Students - A Pre-Post Experimental Study

Abstract

BACKGROUND:

AIM: To study changes in pulmonary function after exposure to prolonged sitting.

Methodology: In this study 46 patients were selected according to inclusion and exclusion criteria. The Pulmonary function test was performed by using a spirometer, to assess FVC, FEV1 and FEV1/FVC ratio. The subjects were asked to sit patiently for 10 minutes before taking the first reading of PFT. During first reading of PFT, the subjects were instructed to inhale deeply then put the mouth piece of the spirometer in to the mouth and exhale rapidly and forcefully for as long as flow can be maintained and then asked them to inhale rapidly and forcefully. This was repeated for three times and the best of three was included in the study. 5 minutes of rest was given in between the 3 readings. This procedure was repeated for 3 readings of PFT; before continuous sitting, after 1 hour of continuous sitting and after 2 hours of continuous sitting.

Result: The pulmonary function was tested pre and post sitting. The data collected was entered in Instat software for statistical analysis. After applying repeated measures of ANOVA, following results were generated. FVC before sitting was (2.673 ±0.6510), after 1 hour of sitting (2.512 ±0.5949) and after 2 hour of sitting it was (2.421 ±0.5991).The P value found was <0.0001 which indicates that FVC decreases as exposure to sitting increases.FEV1 before sitting was (2.656 ± 0.6400), after 1 hour of sitting (2.460 ± 0.5919) and after 2 hour of sitting it was (2.346 ± 0.5886).The P value found was <0.0001 which indicates that FEV1 decreases as exposure to sitting increases. FEV1/FVC before sitting was (99.484 ±1.639), after 1 hour of sitting (97.869 ±2.430) and after 2 hour of sitting it was (96.897 ±4.430). The P value found was <0.0001 which indicates that FEV1/FVC decreases as extremely significant exposure to sitting increases. The results clearly indicated that there was reduction in pulmonary function

as the time duration for continuous sitting increased.

CONCLUSION: From this study we can conclude that pulmonary function reduces due to continuous sitting.