Assessment of pulmonary function among sasang constitutional types: A population-based study in Korea

Introduction The visceral theory in Sasang constitutional medicine proposes the hypothesis that specific types of Sasang constitutions have different functional activities in the internal organs. This population-based cohort study examined whether there were differences in the lung function according to the Sasang constitutional types (SCTs) using the pulmonary function test (PFT). Methods A total of 1320 individuals who participated in the Korean Genome and Epidemiology Study and completed the PFT were included. SCTs were classified by an integrated diagnostic model. We determined the values of the forced vital capacity (FVC), forced expiratory volume in one second (FEV₁), and FEV₁/FVC (%) for each of the SCTs. Individuals who had pulmonary diseases based on the chest X-ray examination were excluded. Results Tae-Eum (TE) type had a significantly lower FVC than So-Eum and So-Yang types (P = 0.034) even after adjusting for confounding factors including age, sex, weight, height, smoking, and presence of diabetes mellitus. FEV₁ did not differ among the SCTs (P = 0.65). In the analysis stratified by gender, there was no significant difference in FVC, FEV₁, and FEV₁/FVC in males, whereas females with the TE type had the lowest value of FVC among the SCTs (P = 0.016). Conclusions This study found that females with the TE type had the poorest lung function, in terms of the lung volume.