To date, the relationship between air pollutants and venous thromboembolism (VTE) has not been well established. Our aim is to investigate the association between ambient air pollutants and the incidence of VTE using the Korean National Health Insurance Service-National Health Screening Cohort (NHIS-HEALS) database. From 2003 to 2015, 338,616 subjects from the general population not previously diagnosed with VTE were included. The long-term average concentration of air pollutants before diagnosis for each subject was calculated. During the study period, there were 3196 incident cases of VTE. After adjusting for age, gender, economic status, body mass index, physical activity, smoking, alcohol consumption, comorbid diseases, and meteorological variables, the risk of VTE was observed to increase significantly with the long-term average concentration of particulate matter < 10 μm in diameter: PM10 (hazard ratio (HR) = 1.064 (95% confidence interval [CI] 1.053−1.074) for 1 μg/m3), SO2 (HR = 1.118 (95% CI 1.079−1.158) 1 ppb), and O3 (HR = 1.039 (95% CI 1.026−1.053) for 1 ppb), respectively. A difference between the date of the health screening and the date of diagnosis of the disease was observed. Long-term exposure to air pollutants including PM10, SO2, and O3 may be an independent risk factor for the development of VTE.
Keywords: air pollutants; deep vein thrombosis; disease; national health program; particulate matter; pulmonary embolism.