Abstract
Objective: To study the association between plasma antioxidants (β-carotene and α-tocopherol) and lung function in Dutch adults aged 20–59 y.
Design: Cross-sectional.
Setting: Population-based study.
Subjects: A random sample (n=367) was drawn from all participants (men and women) aged 20–59 y with reproducible lung function measurements in 1995.
Intervention: Completion of general questionnaire and physical examination.
Main outcome measurements: Forced expiratory volume in 1 s (FEV1), forced vital capacity (FVC) and plasma levels of β-carotene and α-tocopherol.
Results: Subjects with a high plasma β-carotene level (90th percentile, that is 0.57 µmol/L) tended to have a higher FEV1 (73 ml, s.e.m. 60 ml; P=0.22) and a higher FVC (147 ml, s.e.m. 76 ml; P=0.05) than subjects with a low plasma β-carotene level (10th percentile, that is 0.11 µmol/L) after adjustment for age, height, gender, smoking status, pack-years of smoking and alcohol consumption. There was no difference in lung function between subjects with high and low plasma α-tocopherol concentrations.
Conclusions: The results suggest that subjects with a high plasma β-carotene tended to have a higher FVC than subjects with a low plasma β-carotene concentration which was borderline statistically significant. The difference for FEV1 between high and low levels of plasma β-carotene tended to be in the same positive direction as that of FVC but did not reach the pre-set statistical significance level. There is no relation between plasma α-tocopherol and lung function.
Sponsorship: Ministry of Public Health, Welfare and Sports of the Netherlands and the National Institute of Public Health and the Environment.
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Contributors: L Grievink was involved in the study design and analysed the data. HA Smit, B Brunekreef were involved in the study design. P van’t Veer supervised the laboratory analyses and D Kromhout co-ordinated the study. All authors contributed to the writing of the article.
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Grievink, L., Smit, H., van’t Veer, P. et al. Plasma concentrations of the antioxidants β-carotene and α-tocopherol in relation to lung function. Eur J Clin Nutr 53, 813–817 (1999). https://doi.org/10.1038/sj.ejcn.1600854
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DOI: https://doi.org/10.1038/sj.ejcn.1600854
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