Acute respiratory response to individual particle exposure (PM1.0, PM2.5 and PM10) in the elderly with and without chronic respiratory diseases

Tianyi Chen; Fei'er Chen; Kan Wang; Xuedong Ma; Xinping Wei; Weigang Wang; Pengyu Huang; Dong Yang; Zhaolin Xia; Zhuohui Zhao

doi:10.1016/j.envpol.2020.116329

Acute respiratory response to individual particle exposure (PM_1.0, PM_2.5 and PM₁₀) in the elderly with and without chronic respiratory diseases

Environ Pollut. 2021 Feb 15:271:116329. doi: 10.1016/j.envpol.2020.116329. Epub 2020 Dec 17.

Authors

Tianyi Chen¹, Fei'er Chen², Kan Wang¹, Xuedong Ma³, Xinping Wei³, Weigang Wang³, Pengyu Huang³, Dong Yang⁴, Zhaolin Xia¹, Zhuohui Zhao⁵

Affiliations

¹ Department of Environmental Health, School of Public Health, Fudan University, Shanghai, 200032, China.
² Shanghai Municipal Center for Disease Control & Prevention, Shanghai, China.
³ Shanghai Minhang District Gumei Community Health Center affiliated to Fudan University, Shanghai, 201102, China.
⁴ Department of Pulmonary and Critical Care Medicine, Zhongshan Hospital, Fudan University, Shanghai, 200032, China.
⁵ Department of Environmental Health, School of Public Health, Fudan University, Shanghai, 200032, China; Key Laboratory of Public Health Safety of the Ministry of Education, NHC Key Laboratory of Health Technology Assessment (Fudan University), Shanghai Typhoon Institute/CMA, Shanghai Key Laboratory of Meteorology and Health, Shanghai, 200030, China. Electronic address: zhzhao@fudan.edu.cn.

PMID: 33370612
DOI: 10.1016/j.envpol.2020.116329

Abstract

Limited data were on the acute respiratory responses in the elderly in response to personal exposure of particulate matter (PM). In order to evaluate the changes of airway inflammation and pulmonary functions in the elderly in response to individual exposure of particles (PM_1.0, PM_2.5 and PM₁₀), we analyzed 43 elderly subjects with either asthma, chronic obstructive pulmonary disease (COPD) or Asthma COPD Overlap (ACO) and 40 age-matched subjects without asthma nor COPD in an urban community in Shanghai, China. Data were collected at the baseline and in 6 follow-ups from August 2016 to December 2018, once every 3 months except for the last twice with a 6-month interval. In each follow-up, pulmonary functions, fractional exhaled nitric oxide (FeNO), 7-day continuous personal exposure to airborne particles were measured. Multivariate linear mixed effect regression models were applied to investigate the quantitative changes of pulmonary functions and FeNO in two respective groups. The results showed that on average 4.7 follow-up visits were completed in each participant. In subjects with CRDs, an inter-quartile range (IQR) increase of personal exposure to PM_1.0, PM_2.5 and PM₁₀ was significantly associated with an average increase of FeNO(Lag1) of 6.7 ppb (95%CI 1.2, 9.9 ppb), 6.2 ppb (95%CI 1.5, 12.0 ppb) and 5.6 ppb (95%CI 1.5, 11.0 ppb), respectively, and an average decrease of FEV1(Lag2) of -3.6 L (95%CI -6.0, -1.1 L), -3.6 L (95%CI -6.4, -0.8 L) and -3.2 L (95%CI -5.8, -0.6 L), respectively, in the single-pollutant model. These associations remained consistent in the two-pollutant models adjusting for gaseous air pollutants. Stratified analysis showed that subjects with lower BMI, females and non-allergies were more sensitive to particle exposure. No robust significant effects were observed in the subjects without CRDs. Our study provided data on the susceptibility of the elderly with CRDs to particle exposure of PM_1.0 and PM_2.5, and the modification effects by BMI, gender and history of allergies.

Keywords: Asthma; Asthma COPD Overlap; COPD; Particulate matter; Personal air pollution.

MeSH terms

Aged
Air Pollutants* / analysis
Air Pollution* / adverse effects
Air Pollution* / analysis
Asthma*
China
Environmental Exposure / adverse effects
Environmental Exposure / analysis
Female
Humans
Particulate Matter / analysis
Pulmonary Disease, Chronic Obstructive*

Substances

Air Pollutants
Particulate Matter