Vital capacity in trained and untrained healthy young adults in the Netherlands

Summary Slow inspiratory vital capacity was measured in 226 healthy young adults, aged from 17 to 35 years. The group included 119 men and 107 women, 87 trained subjects, 71 untrained subjects who intended to take part in a training program for competitive rowing, and 68 untrained subjects who never took part in any competitive sport.The vital capacity increased with height, weight, fat-free mass, height×fat-free mass, and height-independent fat-free mass, with men having significantly higher vital capacities than women of the same height or weight. In both males and females vital capacity showed the best relation with height×fat-free mass (correlation coefficients are 0.78 and 0.57 respectively). Multiple regression on vital capacity with height, weight, fat-free mass, height×fat-free mass, height-independent fat-free mass, percentage body fat, and age increased the correlation coefficient only slightly (0.80 and 0.59 respectively).The subjects had vital capacities that were much higher than those predicted for them by equations originating from the USA. There was no difference between the observed vital capacities and those predicted by equations originating from Europe. There is a difference in vital capacity between the European subjects studied and subjects of similar height studied in the USA. This implies that equations derived from subjects in the USA cannot be applied to European subjects.From our results we conclude that vital capacity is not increased by physical activity.We derived one simple equation that can be used to predict the vital capacity for both male and female, trained and untrained young adults, who have a similar genetic background to our subjects.