Background: Exposure to air pollution has been consistently associated with cardiovascular morbidity and mortality, but mechanisms remain uncertain. Associations with blood pressure (BP) may help to explain the cardiovascular effects of air pollution.
Objective: We examined the cross-sectional relationship between long-term (annual average) residential air pollution exposure and BP in the National Institute of Environmental Health Sciences’ Sister Study, a large U.S. cohort study investigating risk factors for breast cancer and other outcomes.
Methods: This analysis included 43,629 women 35–76 years of age, enrolled 2003–2009, who had a sister with breast cancer. Geographic information systems contributed to satellite-based nitrogen dioxide (NO2) and fine particulate matter (≤ 2.5 μm; PM2.5) predictions at participant residences at study entry. Generalized additive models were used to examine the relationship between pollutants and measured BP at study entry, adjusting for cardiovascular disease risk factors and including thin plate splines for potential spatial confounding.
Results: A 10-μg/m3 increase in PM2.5 was associated with 1.4-mmHg higher systolic BP (95% CI: 0.6, 2.3; p < 0.001), 1.0-mmHg higher pulse pressure (95% CI: 0.4, 1.7; p = 0.001), 0.8-mmHg higher mean arterial pressure (95% CI: 0.2, 1.4; p = 0.01), and no significant association with diastolic BP. A 10-ppb increase in NO2 was associated with a 0.4-mmHg (95% CI: 0.2, 0.6; p < 0.001) higher pulse pressure.
Conclusions: Long-term PM2.5 and NO2 exposures were associated with higher blood pressure. On a population scale, such air pollution–related increases in blood pressure could, in part, account for the increases in cardiovascular disease morbidity and mortality seen in prior studies.
1Department of Environmental and Occupational Health Sciences, and 2Department of Medicine, University of Washington, Seattle, Washington, USA; 3Department of Mathematics & Statistics, Winona State University, Winona, Minnesota, USA; 4Department of Biostatistics, University of Washington, Seattle, Washington, USA; 5Chronic Disease Epidemiology Group, and 6Genetics, Environment, & Respiratory Disease Group, National Institute of Environmental Health Sciences, National Institutes of Health, Department of Health and Human Services, Research Triangle Park, North Carolina, USA; 7Department of Civil Engineering, University of Minnesota, Minneapolis, Minnesota, USA; 8Department of Epidemiology, University of Washington, Seattle, Washington, USA
Recommended Citation:
Stephanie H. Chan,1* Victor C. Van Hee,1,et al. Long-Term Air Pollution Exposure and Blood Pressure in the Sister Study[J]. Environmental Health Perspectives,2015-01-01,Volume 123(Issue 10):951