Variations in PEFR among Sports Persons of Different Types of Sports Activities and their Relationship with BMI

Background Physical activity is known to improve physical fitness and to reduce the incidence of Hypertension, Diabetes, Obesity etc. Regular exercise as in athletes produces a positive effect on the lung function by increasing vital capacity and make them more fit. The Pulmonary Function Capacities of sedentary individuals have been studied extensively in India but less in the context of an athletic population. Objectives To study the variations in PEFR among sports persons and sedentary persons. To study the variations in BMI of persons of different sports activities. To study the variations in PEFR among persons of different sports activities. Materials and Method Sixty subjects comprising of 30 Male and 30 Female sports person were taken as the study group and 60 sedentary persons were taken as the control group. PEFR was measured using Mini Wright's peak flow meter. The height, weight and BMI of all subjects were recorded. Results Unpaired t test is used to find out the differences between sports persons and sedentary persons and male and female sports persons. Our study shows that height(p<0.0130) and PEFR(p<0.0001) was found to be significantly higher and BMI(p<0.0399) was significantly lower among sports persons when compared with the sedentary persons. Height (p < 0.0084), weight(p<0.0248) and PEFR (p< 0.0078) were significantly higher in male sports person when compared with the females. ANOVA test was used to find out the difference in height, weight, BMI and PEFR between different sports activities. Height and PEFR were found to be higher among football players and athletes and BMI was found to be lower in football players when compared to the other sports persons. Conclusion The results indicate that all the sportspersons had a higher value of lung function compared to the controls. PEFR was found to be high among persons with increased height. Among the various groups of players chosen for this study, the athletes and football players showed the maximum increase in their lung functions and BMI was found to be lower in football players when compared to the other sports persons. The fact that footballers and athletes had higher lung functions could be attributed to the fact that these games involves a lot of power in running at great speed. Compared to the other games included in this study more force has to be generated while running at great speed.