La función pulmonar, factores físicos que la determinan y su importancia para el fisioterapeuta

Introduction

Within their assessment tools, the physical therapist uses those designated for the measurement of lung function. Having extensive knowledge about the physical factors affecting normal lung function is important for the physical therapist. This paper aims to clarify those physical factors that condition pulmonary function.

Aims

To review the bibliography available that relate the physical factors having an influence on pulmonary function.

Search strategy

The search was made with the following databases: CINAHL, Ovid, Scopus, ScienceDirect and PubMed, with time antiquity limited to the last 25 years.

Synthesis of results

A total of 90 articles were obtained from the search. The authors have stated that physical factors of pulmonary function include age, sex, height, weight and ethnic group. In recent year, many authors have also added musculoskeletal factors, morphology of the thoracic cavity and muscle development.

Conclusions

The different studies associate age, sex, race, height and weight and thoracic musculoskeletal factors to pulmonary function. However, more studies are needed to explain this influence.