ArticlePloS one2020
Physical activity and lung function-Cause or consequence?
Article in PloS one, 2020. The graph could read no effect estimate from its abstract, so it casts no vote on the map. Cited by 26 papers.
What it found
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The abstract states no effect estimate the extractor could read, or names no intervention and outcome on the map, so this paper lights no cell and moves no belief. It is still indexed, cited and linked below.
The trial behind it
Trials whose registry record cites this paper, or whose number appears in the abstract. A trial that started after this paper was published is citing it as background, not reporting it.
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Who cites it
26 citing papers in PubMed, 48 citations in OpenAlex.
- Article
- Social isolation and lung function in middle-aged and older adults: identifying modifiable pathways across two populations.BMC public health · 2025Article
- Association of impaired pulmonary function and objectively measured physical activity in a population study.Scientific reports · 2025Article
- Association Between Bioimpedance-Determined Metabolic Age and MASLD Risk Scores in Spanish Workers.Metabolites · 2025Article
- Associations between life's essential 8 and preserved ratio impaired spirometry.Scientific reports · 2025Article
- Health benefits of leisure-time physical activity by socioeconomic status, lifestyle risk, and mental health: a multicohort study.The Lancet. Public health · 2025Article
- The association between physical activity and lung function in adolescents: a cross-sectional NHANES study.Frontiers in medicine · 2025Article
- Walking Our Way Toward COPD Prevention: From Correlation to Action.International journal of chronic obstructive pulmonary disease · 2025Article
- Worse pulmonary function in association with cumulative exposure to nanomaterials. Hints of a mediation effect via pulmonary inflammation.Particle and fibre toxicology · 2024Article
- Physical activity and lung function association in a healthy community-dwelling European population.BMC pulmonary medicine · 2024Article
- Pulmonary function testing in preoperative high-risk patients.Perioperative medicine (London, England) · 2024Article
- Current Role and Future Perspectives of Cardiac Rehabilitation in Heart Disease.Reviews in cardiovascular medicine · 2024Review
- Pulmonary rehabilitation assessment in COPD based on the ICF brief core set: a latent profile analysis.Annals of medicine · 2023Article
- Short-Form Video Exposure and Its Two-Sided Effect on the Physical Activity of Older Community Women in China: Secondary Data Analysis.JMIR mHealth and uHealth · 2023Article
- Peak Expiratory Flow Predicts Incident Dementia in a Representative Sample of U.S. Older Adults: The National Health and Aging Trends Study (NHATS).The journals of gerontology. Series A, Biological sciences and medical sciences · 2023Article
- Mediterranean Diet and Lung Function in Adults Current Smokers: A Cross-Sectional Analysis in the MEDISTAR Project.Nutrients · 2023Observational
- Association between depression and lung function in college students.Frontiers in public health · 2023Article
- Assessment of Factors Influencing Personal Exposure to Air Pollution on Main Roads in Bogota: A Mixed-Method Study.Medicina (Kaunas, Lithuania) · 2022Article
- Mediator Effect of Cardiorespiratory Fitness on the Association between Physical Activity and Lung Function in Adults: Cross-Sectional Results from the Epimov Study.International journal of environmental research and public health · 2022Article
- A prospective cohort study of physical activity in relation to lung cancer incidence among Black women.Cancer epidemiology · 2022Article
Corrections and comments
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Authors and funding
17 authors at 11 institutions in 10 countries.
Funding
Abstract
Concerns exist that the positive association of physical activity with better lung function, which has been suggested in previous longitudinal studies in smokers, is due to reverse causation. To investigate this, we applied structural equation modeling (SEM), an exploratory approach, and marginal structural modeling (MSM), an approach from the causal inference framework that corrects for reverse causation and time-dependent confounding and estimates causal effects, on data from participants in the European Community Respiratory Health Survey (ECRHS, a multicentre European cohort study initiated in 1991-1993 with ECRHS I, and with two follow-ups: ECRHS II in 1999-2003, and ECRHS III in 2010-2014). 753 subjects who reported current smoking at ECRHS II, with repeated data on lung function at ECRHS I, II and III, physical activity at ECRHS II and III, and potential confounders at ECRHS I and II, were included in the analyses. SEM showed positive associations between physical activity and lung function in both directions. MSM suggested a protective causal effect of physical activity on lung function (overall difference in mean β (95% CI), comparing active versus non-active individuals: 58 mL (21-95) for forced expiratory volume in one second and 83 mL (36-130) for forced vital capacity). Our results suggest bi-directional causation and support a true protective effect of physical activity on lung function in smokers, after accounting for reverse causation and time-dependent confounding.
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Registered trials
Read under generation 80e0d062 · epoch 390. Bibliography from PubMed, PubMed Central and OpenAlex; grants from NIH RePORTER; trial links from ClinicalTrials.gov; estimates, votes and beliefs from the OpenQuestion graph.