Abstract
Background:
Spirometry can be used to measure a patient's lung function and severity of asthma among other lung diseases. Testing relies heavily on patient effort and understanding in order to obtain accurate and reliable results. At our pediatric outpatient clinics, we sought to determine if there was a relationship between ability to perform the maneuver required for the test, and age and/or sex of the patient.
Methods:
In an IRB approved retrospective analysis, we reviewed 1,066 pediatric spirometry audits from January 1, 2022 to May 1, 2022. We categorized the data based on completed vs. practice spirometry (did not meet ATS standards), age, sex, and number of previous attempts to determine significance associated with compliance based on age or sex.
Results:
In 1,066 pediatric spirometry audits, the age range of patients was 5-20 years (median age of 11) with 570 (54.5%) males and 492 (46.2%) females. Of the 1,066 spirometry completed, 198 were practice spirometry (18.6%). The difference between male and female ability to perform spirometry was insignificant (81% vs 81.7% respectively). The younger the patient, the lower the amount of acceptable spirometry (Table 1). Of the practice spirometry reviewed, the average number of previous attempts was 1.2, with 57.6% of practice spirometry being the patient’s first attempt. 23.7% of the practice spirometry was the second attempt, showing that the biggest contributing factor was not age or sex, but prior attempts.
Conclusions:
In our pediatric hospital, compliance with ATS standards was not influenced by sex, but associated with prior experience performing the test and patient age. Further research is needed to assess a larger sample of each age group to gain more insight on age and the influence of prior attempts influence on pediatric spirometry performance.
Table 1 shows the spirometry compliance and difference between each age group between males and females in percent
Figure 1 shows the ATS criteria that must be met by the patient in order to have acceptable and repeatable spirometry View all access options for this article.Pediatric Spirometry Meeting ATS Standards by Age and Sex
Male (%)
Female (%)
Difference (%)
Age 5 (n=7)
25
33.3
+8.3
Age 6 (n=75)
55.6
33.3
-22.3
Age 7 (n=92)
67.3
60.5
-6.8
Age 8 (n=114)
76.5
93.5
+17
Age 9 (n=78)
91.1
78.8
-12.3
Age 10 (n=94)
83.9
89.5
+5.6
Age 11 (n=87)
84.9
88.2
+3.3
Age 12 (n=85)
87.2
81.2
-6
Age 13 (n=90)
86.0
87.5
+1.5
Age 14 (n=81)
85.7
82.6
-3.1
Age 15 (n=78)
90.9
88.9
-2
Age 16 (n=69)
84.2
77.4
-6.8
Age 17 (n=61)
95.8
91.9
-3.9
Age 18 (n=28)
69.2
100
+30.8
Age 19 (n=13)
100
100
0
Age 20 (n=11)
100
100
0
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