Correlates of peak expiratory flow rate: a study of sand stone quarry workers in desert

The study assesses the relationship between selected demographic, anthropometeric, radiological, work-history and smoking-history related variables with Peak Expiratory Flow Rate (PEFR) in a sample of 286 sand stone quarry workers from a desert region. Age, height, profusion of radiological opacities, age at beginning of work, duration of work and duration of smoking were found significantly associated with PEFR while duration of exposure to dust, nature of job and number of biries smoked per day failed to establish their significant association. Mean PEFR of these workers was found significantly lower than the same among healthy adults from the study area. The subset of predictors of PEFR only included age, height and profusion of radiological opacities as identified by multiple regression analysis.