text: Briefly, in 935 individuals aged 65–90 years from the Augsburg region spirometric measurements were performed in line with ATS/ERS recommendations [5], and 840 subjects gave their written consent to be contacted to participate in the current sub-study, for which 200 individuals were selected from the upper and lower tails of the FEV1%pred distribution based on reference equations of the lung-healthy population of the Augsburg region [4].