Associations between long-term exposure to ambient air pollution and Parkinson's disease prevalence. - GreenMedInfo Summary
Associations between long-term exposure to ambient air pollution and Parkinson's disease prevalence: A cross-sectional study.
Neurochem Int. 2019 Nov 29 ;133:104615. Epub 2019 Nov 29. PMID: 31786292
Farhad Salimi
BACKGROUND: Epidemiological studies have reported contradictory results regarding the effects of ambient air pollution on Parkinson's disease (PD). This study investigated the associations between long-term exposure to particulate matter<2.5 μm in diameter (PM) and nitrogen dioxide (NO) and PD among participants in the 45 and Up Study, which comprised adults older than 45 years living in New South Wales, Australia.
METHODS: We conducted a cross-sectional analysis of long-term exposure to PMand NOconcentrations and prevalence of PD using data from around 240,000 cohort members from the 45 and Up Study, NSW. Annual average concentrations of NOand PMwere estimated at the participants' residential address using satellite-based land use regression models. Logistic regression was used to quantify the associations between these pollutants and ever physician-diagnosed PD, after adjusting for a range of individual- and area-level covariates.
RESULTS: Among the 236,390 participants with complete data, 1,428 (0.6%) reported physician-diagnosed PD. Annual mean PMand NOconcentrations for the cohort were 5.8 and 11.9 μg m, respectively, and were positively, but not statistically significantly associated with PD. The odds ratio for a 1 μg mincrease in PMwas 1.01 (95% confidence interval (CI): 0.98-1.04). The adjusted odds ratio for a 5 μg mincrease in NOwas 1.03 (95% CI: 0.98-1.08). In subgroup analyses, larger associations for NOwere observed among past smokers (OR 1.11 (95% CI: 1.02-1.20) per 5 μg mincrease).
CONCLUSIONS: Overall, we found limited evidence of associations between long-term exposure to NOor PMand PD. The associations observed among past smokers require further corroboration.