Reference Values for Chest Expansion among Adult Residents in Ile-Ife

Abstract

Abstract Background: Chest excursion measurements are used to evaluate a patient’s baseline status, treatment effectiveness, and progression of disease with regards to chest wall mobility and respiratory muscle function, although current research regarding normal chest expansion measurements, consistent patient position and site of measurement is limited. This study was designed to access chest expansion of healthy adults resident in Ile-Ife, Nigeria. Methods: Four hundred and twenty-eight (200 males, 228 females) volunteers were recruited for the study. Their age ranged between 20 and 70 years. Participants were apparently healthy and non smoking individuals who are recruited by purposive sampling technique. Data was obtained by measuring chest expansion of both upper and lower thoracic excursion using an inelastic tape with measurement taken twice and the average being recorded. Measurements were taken at the height of maximal inspiration and expiration. For the upper thoracic excursion, the tape measure was placed at the level of the fifth thoracic spinous process and the third intercostals space at the midclavicular line and for the lower thoracic excursion, the tape measure was placed at the level of the 10th thoracic spinous process and the tip of the xiphoid process. The difference of the two measurements was recorded as chest excursion. Data was analyzed with descriptive and inferential statistics. Level of significance was set at 0.05 α-level. Results: Results showed that male participants have significant higher chest expansion than female participants in upper thoracic (2.6+1.4cm, 2.2+1.2cm) for male and female respectively and at lower thoracic (2.3+1.2cm, 1.7+1.1cm) (p< 0.05) for male and female respectively. Chest expansion of male and female participants at both upper and lower thoracic peak at age 20-29 and decreases thereafter with increasing age. The result showed that chest expansion was negatively correlated with age in male (r= -0.370; p<0.05); r= -0.153; p<0.05); and in female (r= -0.319; p<0.05); r= -0.458; p<0.05) for both upper and lower thoracic respectively. In female participants, chest expansion was significantly correlated with BMI (r= -0.141, 0.197; p<0.05). For the entire participants, values less than 25th, between 25-75th and greater than 75th are considered to be poor, moderate, and good excursion respectively. For the upper expansion and lower expansion, the values are 1.4 cm, 3.1 cm, 5.1 cm and 1.0 cm, 2.7 cm and 4.3 cm respectively. Conclusion: It was concluded that chest expansion of both upper and lower thoracic increase with age increases until the 3rd decade of life, and then steadily declines after this. Male chest expansion was significantly higher than female participants.