High altitude vs underwater : An analysis of functional lung capacity / Muhammad Uzair Azim Azman

Porter is the one who involved in high altitude condition while scuba divers is the
one who involved in underwater condition. Porters and scuba divers need a very
good lung in order to maintain their performance during their activities and they
usually have greater lung capacity than others because of their adaptation in high
altitude and underwater condition. The purpose of this study is to determine and
compare the functional lung capacity that is Forced Vital Capacity (FVC, Forced
Expiratory Volume in 1 second (FEV1) and FEV1/FVC between Mount Kinabalu
Porters and Sapi Island Scuba Divers. The spirometric parameters were measured at
two different subject which is porters that involve in high altitude and divers that
involved in underwater. The independent variable (IV) is representing the porters and
divers and dependent variable (DV) will be representing the functional lung capacity.
15 porters and 15 divers were tested using spirometer and the FVC, FEV1 and
FEV1/FVC was measured. The data collected have been analyzed using Statistical
Package for Social Science (SPSS) version 19.0.The results show that FVC value
was 0.03 which is less than 0.05. FEV1 value is 0.02 which was also less than 0.05.
While FEV1//FVC (L) value was 0.5 which is more than 0.05. There is a significant
difference effect on FVC and FEV1 between porters and divers. Thus the null
hypothesis for FVC and FEV1 is accepted while the FEV1/FVC (L) showed that
there is no significant difference. This study showed that porters have greater lung
capacity than divers based on their FVC and FEV1 but not in FEV1/FVC (L).