Who goes where? GLI ethnic groups Caucasian Persons having origins of Europe, Israel, Australia, USA, Canada, Mexican Americans, Brazil, Chile, Mexico, Uruguay, Venezuela, Algeria, and Tunisia.
African American Persons of black heritage.
Northeast Asian Persons having origins of Korea and China north of the Huaihe River and Qinling Mountains.
Southeast Asian Persons having origins of Thailand, Taiwan, and China (including Hong Kong) south of the Huaihe River and Qinling Mountains.
Other/mixed Select this option if unsure of ethnicity.
Recommendations The GLI spirometry predicted equation sets, which have been available for nearly a decade now, represent a significant step forward in the accurate
that the group called ‘Other/mixed’ is
used. Individuals in this group are compared to the average of the four main ethnic groups.
The future
interpretation of lung function in every
GLI manages ethnicity much more
ethnic group. The previously used
accurately, though there is still plenty of
equations, although the best available
work to do on this. Additional data from
at the time, are deeply flawed and lead
the Indian subcontinent and Arabic,
to misinterpretation, misdiagnosis and
Polynesian and Latin American
potentially life changing decisions.
countries, as well as Africa will further
When using the GLI equations you
improve these equations in the future.
should choose the ethnic group that is
With ongoing data collection, it is hoped
most appropriate to the individual you
that the majority of “missing groups”
are testing. Although ethnicity should
will be included within the next 5
be a consideration it is a slippery
yrs. Provided a sufficiently large and
concept and frequently your subject
representative dataset is collected using
won’t fit neatly into any specific group.
standardised protocols, it should be
When assessing lung function in an
possible to derive suitable ethnic
individual not represented by one of the
coefficients for specific groups without
four main groups it is recommended
re-calculating the GLI equations.
34
OH TODAY
Autumn 2021