A Comparative Study of Pulmonary Function Tests of Roadside Vendors with Relation to Duration of Job

Abstract

Background: Rapid industrial growth, globalization, and poor environmental conditions at work places have created a lot of health-related issues. The rising number of vehicles has sharply increased the level of air pollution in various cities of India. Air Pollution is now the fifth largest killer in India says newly released Findings of global Burden of Disease report. The presence of various particles and gases such as carbon dioxide, carbon monoxide, sulfur, benzene, lead, nitrogen dioxide, and nitric oxide from vehicular emission plays a vital role in the pathogenesis of respiratory diseases. There are many studies concluding that there was a considerable increased burden of respiratory morbidities and lowered lung functions in traffic policemen and petrol pump workers, indicating major burden on health facilities. Effects of pollutants on lung functions was analyzed by recording Forced Vital Capacity (FVC), forced expiratory volume in one second (FEV1) and FVC/FEV1 ratio. Authors could not find any study on roadside vendors to assess their lung functions with duration of job so this study was planned to fill in the lacuna. The aim is to study the Lung Functions of roadside vendors working for more than 5yrs along roadside to identify the prevalence of abnormalities in lung function tests and to corelate these abnormalities with their duration of job.
Material and Methods: It is a cross-sectional comparative study done in Department of Physiology of G R Medical College, Gwalior (M.P.) and SRVS Medical College Shivpuri (M.P.). We have included 90 roadside vendors and 90 age and sex matched controls in our study. According to Cambridge dictionary ‘roadside vendors’ are individuals who are working in shops or their temporary occupancy on edges of road. Computerized Spirometry software (MEDICAID SIPRO EXCEL) manufactured in Mohali, India, was used to assess FVC, FEV1 & FVC/FEV1 ratio. Statistical Analysis is unpaired Student t-test analysis will be done using GraphPad Prism, version 5.0 software. p value <0.05 will be considered as significant value and relation with duration of job was calculated using pearson-r.
Results: Roadside Vendors recorded a significant decline in all parameters, FVC, FEV1, and FVC/FEV1 ratio when compared with controls, and is probably due to exposure to vehicular pollution. On Comparing two subgroups of roadside vendors on basis of duration of job we found a significant decline in PFT parameters like FVC, FEV1, FEV1/FVC ratio, PEFR & FEF25-75%. Values of FVC (2.89L ± 0.46), FEV1 (2.46L ± 0.45), FVC/FEV1 ratio (84.17% ± 6.61), PEFR (4.11 ± 1.12) and FEF25-75% (3.4 ± 0.79) were significantly lower in subgroup B of roadside vendors who were working for more than 10 years than those obtained in subgroup of roadside vendors who were working for less than 10 years, in whom the values were 3.11 ± 0.35, 2.66 ± 0.36, 85.52 ± 7.42, 4.78 ± 1.71 and 4.0 ± 1.12 for FVC, FEV1, FVC/FEV1 ratio, PEFR and FEF25-75 , p-value of all parameters is <0.05 i.e., there is significant difference in the values. Also, all lung function tests parameters showed a negative correlation with duration of job as calculated by “pearson r” correlation.
Conclusion: In our study we found that all FVC, FEV1, FVC/FEV1 ratio, PEFR and FEF 25-75 were significantly lower in roadside vendors who are exposed for more than 10 years when compared to roadside vendors with a duration of exposure of 5-10 years. All PFT parameters showed a negative correlation with duration of job of roadside vendors. The effect of pollution by vehicular exhausts may be responsible for these pulmonary function impairments.