High humidity, short-term lung function degradation...Maintain proper humidity, prevent respiratory diseases
Feb 13, 2025
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Yoon Hee-young, a team of respiratory medicine professors at Soonchunhyang University Seoul Hospital (Seok Jin-woo, Lee Bo-young) published a paper by analyzing the relationship between relative humidity, lung function, and respiratory symptoms using data from the National Health and Nutrition Survey (KNHANES) from 2016 to 2018.
The researchers evaluated respiratory symptoms through lung function test data and health questionnaires of 13,396 adults over the age of 40. In addition, environmental data such as relative humidity, temperature, and fine dust were linked to the participants' residences using the Community Multiscale Air Quality (CMAQ) model.
Long-term exposure to high humidity for more than a year showed a tendency to increase effortless lung capacity (test to measure the amount of air by inhaling and exhaling as deeply as possible), but short-term high humidity of less than 14 days was found to reduce some indicators of lung function (one-second forced respiratory volume/effortive lung capacity ratio).
This suggests that although high humidity may protect lung tissue in the long term, it is likely to cause lung function decline in the short term.
It was also confirmed in this study that humidity also affects respiratory symptoms. Chronic cough and phlegm symptoms tended to decrease when humidity was high in the middle (90 to 180 days). In response, the researchers said "Proper humidity maintenance can help protect the bronchial mucosa and prevent respiratory diseases.", he explained.
Professor Hee-young Yoon explained, "Atmospheric humidity has an important effect on respiratory health, and it also affects diseases and symptoms, so we conducted a study to clarify this."As proper humidity maintenance can help lung function and manage respiratory symptoms, it is recommended to use a humidifier in winter to maintain humidity, and to use a dehumidifier or ventilate frequently in summer."
Professor Yoon Hee-young's team's 'The Association Between Humidity and Respiratory Health: The 2016-2018 Korea National Health and Nutrition Examination Survey'The paper was published in December 2024 in the journal Respir Res.
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This article was translated by Naver AI translator.
