Relationship between cigarette smoking, chest size and body size in health-screened adult males

Previous investigations have shown that chest dimensions and pulmonary function are positively correlated in healthy individuals. It is not known, however, whether the pulmonary effects of cigarette smoking may modify chest size during adulthood. The present study used cross-sectional data from 1557 healthy male participants in the Normative Aging Study of the Veterans Administration Outpatient Clinic, Boston. Because elastic recoil of the lung is decreased in cigarette smokers, we hypothesized that chest circumference would increase while chest expandability would decrease in these individuals. Preliminary analyses showed that smokers differed from non-smokers and former smokers in age, weight and fatness. For this reason, associations of chest dimensions with smoking status were evaluated after statistical correction for age and body size. With men of all ages grouped, chest expansion of smokers was significantly lower than non-smokers, but their chest size and shape were similar. When covariance analyses were performed separately for men under 50 and over 50 years, older smokers were characterized by slightly larger chests than non-smokers or former smokers, though there was no difference among younger men. Results of this study indicate that external chest dimensions of cigarette smokers reflect the pulmonary changes they experience, and demonstrate that a portion of the increased variability in chest measurements seen in older individuals is attributable to cigarette smoking.