Various spirometry measurements from the National Health and Nutrition Examination Survey (NHANES) 2007–2012 along with covariates providing demographics and basic body measurements.
Usage
data("SpirometryUS", package = "gamlss2")
Format
A data frame containing 16596 observations on 13 variables.
fvc
Numeric. Forced vital capacity (FVC) in liters, i.e., the volume of air that can forcibly be blown out after full inspiration.
fev1
Numeric. Forced expiratory volume in 1 second (FEV1) in liters, i.e., the volume of air that can forcibly be blown out in the first second, after full inspiration.
ratio
Numeric. Ratio of FEV1 to FVC.
pef
Numeric, peak expiratory flow (PEF) in liters per second, i.e., the maximal flow (or speed) achieved during the maximally forced expiration initiated at full inspiration.
fef
Numeric. Forced expiratory flow (FEF) in liters per second, i.e., the flow (or speed) of air coming out of the lung during the middle portion (25% to 75%) of a forced expiration.
volume
Numeric. Extrapolated volume.
fet
Numeric. Forced expiratory time (FET) in seconds, i.e., the length of the expiration.
gender
Factor. Binary gender information with levels female and male.
age
Numeric. Age in years (rounded to quarters).
weight
Numeric. Body weight in kilograms.
height
Numeric. Body height in centimeters.
bmi
Numeric. Body mass index in kilograms per meter-squared, rounded to 2 decimal places.
ethnicity
Factor. Self-reported race and ethnicity information with levels white, black, mexican American, other hispanic, and other (including multi-racial).
Details
In order to establish lung function reference equations, Zavorsky (2025) studies the dependence of three spirometry measurements (FVC, FEV1, and the FEV1/FVC ratio) on age, adjusted for height and weight and separately for females and males. He intends to show that a simple normally-distributed model with (piecewise) linear mean equation and (piecewise) constant variance suffices for obtaining an adequate distributional fit from which the 5% quantile can be obtained as the so-called lower limit of normal (LLN). Actually, his comparison with GAMLSS – using flexible predictors for both mean and variance along with a Box-Cox-transformed normal distribution – shows that GAMLSS leads to a similar fit for the mean but a much better fit for the LLN.
Zavorsky’s (2025) analyses are based on a data set that he derived from the National Health and Nutrition Examination Survey (NHANES) in the United States 2007–2012. From the entire available data from https://wwwn.cdc.gov/nchs/nhanes/ he included those observations which met or exceeded the technical acceptability of the measurements for forced expiratory volume in 1 second (FEV1) and forced vital capacity (FVC). The data are described in a short communication published in the Data in Brief journal and the accompanying spreadsheet in CSV format (comma-separated values) is available from Mendeley Data.
The data comprises observations from NHANES’ “Examination Data”, in particular in “Spirometry – Pre and Post-Bronchodilator” and “Body Measures”, plus accompanying “Demographics Data”. See the variable descriptions above for more details. Basic information about spirometry can be found for example in the Wikipedia at https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Spirometry.
Source
Zavorsky GS (2024). “Refined NHANES 2007–2012 Spirometry Dataset for the Comparison of Segmented (Piecewise) Linear Models to That of GAMLSS”, Mendeley Data, V1. doi:10.17632/dwjykg3xww.1
References
Zavorsky GS (2024). “A Refined Spirometry Dataset for Comparing Segmented (Piecewise) Linear Models to that of GAMLSS”. Data in Brief, 57, 111062. doi:10.1016/j.dib.2024.111062
Zavorsky GS (2025). “Debunking the GAMLSS Myth: Simplicity Reigns in Pulmonary Function Diagnostics”. Respiratory Medicine, 236, 107836. doi:10.1016/j.rmed.2024.107836
fvc fev1 ratio pef
Min. :0.704 Min. :0.476 Min. :0.2913 Min. : 0.901
1st Qu.:2.815 1st Qu.:2.224 1st Qu.:0.7604 1st Qu.: 5.816
Median :3.630 Median :2.910 Median :0.8147 Median : 7.418
Mean :3.676 Mean :2.948 Mean :0.8064 Mean : 7.506
3rd Qu.:4.480 3rd Qu.:3.598 3rd Qu.:0.8620 3rd Qu.: 9.150
Max. :9.361 Max. :6.923 Max. :1.0000 Max. :19.024
fef volume fet gender
Min. :0.010 Min. : 0.00 Min. : 1.200 female:8303
1st Qu.:1.986 1st Qu.: 52.00 1st Qu.: 7.700 male :8293
Median :2.832 Median : 69.00 Median : 9.000
Mean :2.942 Mean : 76.18 Mean : 9.693
3rd Qu.:3.774 3rd Qu.: 93.00 3rd Qu.:11.500
Max. :9.280 Max. :321.00 Max. :32.800
age weight height bmi
Min. : 6.00 Min. : 16.40 Min. :104.6 Min. :12.50
1st Qu.:17.00 1st Qu.: 57.20 1st Qu.:155.9 1st Qu.:21.67
Median :34.00 Median : 72.30 Median :164.8 Median :26.06
Mean :35.89 Mean : 72.97 Mean :162.9 Mean :26.82
3rd Qu.:53.00 3rd Qu.: 88.20 3rd Qu.:173.2 3rd Qu.:30.90
Max. :80.00 Max. :218.20 Max. :203.8 Max. :84.87
ethnicity
white :6607
black :3598
mexican :3068
hispanic:1825
other :1498