Effect of Smoking on Physical Activity Level and Pulmonary Function of Vocational Students in Bangkok

Abstract

Background and Objective: Smoking has direct effect on respiratory system. There are some previous studies on the effect of smoking on pulmonary function in adults. They showed that smoking decreased pulmonary function and they also found the relationship between physical activity level and pulmonary function.  However, there are few studies observing the effect of smoking on pulmonary function and physical activity level in teenagers. For this study, the objectives are to assess the physical activity level and pulmonary function between smoking and non-smoking groups of vocational students in Bangkok.

Methods : This study is cross-sectional design. Male vocational students aged between 17-23 years in 5 vocational education schools were separated into 2 groups, smoking (n=220) and non-smoking groups (n=202). They were conducted to answer the informative and habitual physical activity questionnaires and tested for the pulmonary function.

Results : Pulmonary function tests  including FVC, FEV₁, FEV₁ /FVC and FEF_25-75% showed no significant difference between 2 groups (p=0.764, p=0.852, p=0.895, p=0.821). The scores of physical activity level consisted of work, exercise, leisure and sum of activities had no significant difference between 2 groups (p=0.539, p=0.143, p=0.079, p=0.12). No relationship between pulmonary function and activity level in both groups was found.

Conclusion: There was no significant difference between smokers and non-smokers for both pulmonary function and physical activity level. It can be concluded that there was no relationship in teenagers between pulmonary function and physical activity level between both groups.

Keywords: smoking, physical activity level, pulmonary function