The Effect of Body Fat Distribution

Although the influence of obesity on pulmonary function tests has been examined, the role of body fat distribution has received limited attention. Pulmonary studies of patients severely affected by upper body obesity suggest they have more severely compromised lung volumes than obese patients with lower body obesity. We examined 42 healthy but normal or mildly obese men to determine if body fat distribution influences pulmonary function tests. Multiple measures of adiposity showed a significant inverse relationship with both spirometry and static lung volumes. However, the biceps skinfold thickness had the strongest inverse relationship with total lung capacity (TLC) compared to other anthropometric measures. The waist-to-hip ratio (WHR) demonstrated a significant inverse relationship with static lung volumes only when controlling for cigarette smoking. However, comparing pulmonary function tests between patients with a WHR less than 0.950 (lower body fat distribution) and subjects