Percentage of population defined as exhibiting lung function below the lower limit of normal (LLN) in “healthy” and whole populations using the Health Survey for England (HSE) and European Coal and Steel Community (ECSC) reference curves by sex and age group#
| Age yrs | HSE¶ | ECSC+ | ||||||
| Healthy | Whole | Healthy | Whole | |||||
| FEV1 | FVC | FEV1 | FVC | FEV1 | FVC | FEV1 | FVC | |
| Males | ||||||||
| 18–24 | 4.9 | 4.6 | 7.4 | 7.7 | 4.3 | 3.0 | 5.8 | 5.1 |
| 25–34 | 5.8 | 5.0 | 8.8 | 7.4 | 3.1 | 2.6 | 5.5 | 4.5 |
| 35–44 | 6.3 | 6.0 | 12.5 | 8.8 | 2.6 | 2.6 | 6.3 | 4.5 |
| 45–54 | 3.5 | 5.1 | 15.1 | 10.2 | 0.5 | 1.6 | 8.3 | 5.4 |
| 55–64 | 3.1 | 3.8 | 17.7 | 12.7 | 1.2 | 1.5 | 12.0 | 8.9 |
| 65–70 | 7.5 | 7.5 | 22.8 | 17.1 | 5.7 | 3.8 | 18.1 | 13.0 |
| All | 5.2 | 5.2 | 13.4 | 10.0 | 2.6 | 2.4 | 8.4 | 6.2 |
| Females | ||||||||
| 18–24 | 4.7 | 5.8 | 9.7 | 7.8 | 1.7 | 3.3 | 5.1 | 4.9 |
| 25–34 | 4.6 | 5.7 | 9.1 | 7.2 | 2.4 | 1.9 | 4.3 | 3.4 |
| 35–44 | 6.3 | 4.4 | 12.5 | 9.5 | 1.9 | 0.9 | 5.1 | 3.4 |
| 45–54 | 5.1 | 5.4 | 13.8 | 10.1 | 1.7 | 0.7 | 5.3 | 2.8 |
| 55–64 | 5.3 | 6.7 | 17.5 | 13.9 | 1.7 | 1.2 | 8.9 | 4.8 |
| 65–70 | 4.8 | 5.3 | 17.8 | 13.8 | 1.0 | 1.0 | 9.6 | 5.5 |
| All | 5.2 | 5.5 | 12.9 | 9.9 | 1.9 | 1.4 | 5.9 | 3.9 |
#: range restricted to 18–70 yrs, as recommended for the ECSC prediction equations, to permit comparison
FEV1: forced expiratory volume in one second
FVC: forced vital capacity
¶: LLN computed from mean lung function=eb0+b1A+b2A2+b3ln H
coefficient values given in table 2⇑
+: LLN computed from mean – 1.645σ