Saad Neil J, Patel Jaymini, Minelli Cosetta, Burney Peter G J
National Heart and Lung Institute, Imperial College London, London, United Kingdom.
PLoS One. 2017 Jun 2;12(6):e0178962. doi: 10.1371/journal.pone.0178962. eCollection 2017.
Ethnic disparities in lung function have been linked mainly to anthropometric factors but have not been fully explained. We conducted a cross-sectional pilot study to investigate how best to study ethnic differences in lung function in young adults and evaluate whether these could be explained by birth weight and socio-economic factors.
We recruited 112 university students of White and South Asian British ethnicity, measured post-bronchodilator lung function, obtained information on respiratory symptoms and socio-economic factors through questionnaires, and acquired birth weight through data linkage. We regressed lung function against ethnicity and candidate predictors defined a priori using linear regression, and used penalised regression to examine a wider range of factors. We reviewed the implications of our findings for the feasibility of a larger study.
There was a similar parental socio-economic environment and no difference in birth weight between the two ethnic groups, but the ethnic difference in FVC adjusted for sex, age, height, demi-span, father's occupation, birth weight, maternal educational attainment and maternal upbringing was 0.81L (95%CI: -1.01 to -0.54L). Difference in body proportions did not explain the ethnic differences although parental immigration was an important predictor of FVC independent of ethnic group. Participants were comfortable with study procedures and we were able to link birth weight data to clinical measurements.
Studies of ethnic disparities in lung function among young adults are feasible. Future studies should recruit a socially more diverse sample and investigate the role of markers of acculturation in explaining such differences.
肺功能方面的种族差异主要与人体测量学因素有关，但尚未得到充分解释。我们开展了一项横断面试点研究，以探究如何最好地研究年轻成年人肺功能的种族差异，并评估这些差异是否可以由出生体重和社会经济因素来解释。
我们招募了112名英国白人和南亚裔大学生，测量了支气管扩张剂后的肺功能，通过问卷调查获取了呼吸症状和社会经济因素的信息，并通过数据链接获取了出生体重。我们使用线性回归将肺功能与种族及预先定义的候选预测因素进行回归分析，并使用惩罚回归来检验更广泛的因素。我们审视了研究结果对开展更大规模研究的可行性的影响。
两个种族群体的父母社会经济环境相似，出生体重也无差异，但在对性别、年龄、身高、半臂长、父亲职业、出生体重、母亲教育程度和母亲养育方式进行调整后，FVC的种族差异为0.81升（95%置信区间：-1.01至-0.54升）。身体比例的差异并不能解释种族差异，尽管父母的移民身份是FVC的一个重要预测因素，且独立于种族群体。参与者对研究程序感到满意，我们能够将出生体重数据与临床测量数据相链接。
对年轻成年人肺功能种族差异的研究是可行的。未来的研究应招募社会背景更多样化的样本，并调查文化适应标志物在解释此类差异中的作用。
