Maintenance of lung function is an often underappreciated, yet critical component of healthy aging. Given the unprecedented shift in the average age of Canadians over the next half century, it will be important to investigate the determinants of lung function in the elderly.

In the following study, we estimated the association between lung function and a broad array of factors related to sociodemographics, lifestyle, chronic medical conditions and psychosocial factors in older adults aged 45–86 years old using cross-sectional data from the Canadian Longitudinal Study of Aging (n = 21,338). In addition to examining the entire cohort, we also performed stratified analyses within men/women, adults aged 45–64/65+, and healthy/comorbid. In multivariable regression, our explanatory factors (excluding age, sex, height and ethnicity) were able to explain 17% and 11% of the total variance in FEV₁ and FEV₁/FVC, respectively. Notable and significant contributions were observed for respiratory disease, smoking, obesity, income, and physical activity, while psychosocial factors mainly exhibited non-significant associations. Generally, these associations were stronger for males than females, and adults 65 and older as compared to those aged 45–64.

Our findings indicate that there are pervasive and generally under-recognized sociodemographic and lifestyle factors that exhibit significant associations with FEV₁ and FEV₁/FVC in older adults.

While implication of causality in these relationships is not possible due to the cross-sectional nature of the study, future work aiming to investigate determinants of lung health in older adults may choose to target these factors, given that many are modifiable.

维持肺功能是健康衰老的一个经常被忽视的关键因素。鉴于下半个世纪加拿大人的平均年龄出现了前所未有的变化，因此调查老年人肺功能的决定因素将非常重要。

在以下研究中，我们使用加拿大纵向研究的横断面数据估算了45-86岁老年人的肺功能与一系列与社会人口统计学，生活方式，慢性医学状况和社会心理因素相关的因素之间的关联。老化（n = 21,338）。除了检查整个队列外，我们还对男性/女性，45-64 / 65岁以上的成年人以及健康/合并症进行了分层分析。在多变量回归中，我们的解释因素（不包括年龄，性别，身高和种族）能够解释FEV ₁和FEV ₁的总方差的17％和11％/ FVC，分别。在呼吸系统疾病，吸烟，肥胖，收入和体育锻炼方面观察到显着且显着的贡献，而社会心理因素主要表现出不显着的关联。一般而言，男性与女性之间的关联更强，与65-45岁的成年人相比，65岁及以上的成年人更是如此。

我们的发现表明，在老年人中，存在普遍存在且普遍未得到充分认识的社会人口统计学和生活方式因素，这些因素与FEV ₁和FEV ₁ / FVC显着相关。

尽管由于研究的横断面性质而无法在这些关系中包含因果关系，但鉴于许多因素是可修改的，因此，旨在调查老年人肺部健康决定因素的未来工作可能会选择针对这些因素。