The impact of diabetes and age on pulmonary function: data from the National Health and Nutrition Examination Survey.

Using data from NHANES III, we evaluated the effect of diabetes on the age-related decline in lung function. The Diabetes group (n=471) had significantly lower mean FEV(1) and FVC values than the No Diabetes group (n=4317), but pulmonary function declined with increasing age at a similar rate for both groups.