Systemic Inflammation (C-Reactive Protein) in Older Chinese Adults Is Associated with Long-Term Exposure to Ambient Air Pollution

Mona Elbarbary; Artem Oganesyan; Trenton Honda; Geoffrey Morgan; Yuming Guo; Yanfei Guo; Joel Negin

doi:10.3390/ijerph18063258

Systemic Inflammation (C-Reactive Protein) in Older Chinese Adults Is Associated with Long-Term Exposure to Ambient Air Pollution

Int J Environ Res Public Health. 2021 Mar 22;18(6):3258. doi: 10.3390/ijerph18063258.

Authors

Mona Elbarbary¹, Artem Oganesyan², Trenton Honda³, Geoffrey Morgan^{1

4}, Yuming Guo⁵, Yanfei Guo⁶, Joel Negin¹

Affiliations

¹ Faculty of Medicine and Health, Sydney School of Public Health, The University of Sydney, Sydney, NSW 2006, Australia.
² Department of Hematology and Transfusion Medicine, National Institute of Health, Yerevan 0051, Armenia.
³ Bouvé College of Health Sciences, Northeastern University, Boston, MA 02115, USA.
⁴ School of Public Health, University Centre for Rural Health, The University of Sydney, Sydney, NSW 2006, Australia.
⁵ Department of Epidemiology and Preventive Medicine, School of Public Health and Preventive Medicine, Monash University, Clayton, VIC 3800, Australia.
⁶ Shanghai Municipal Center for Disease Control and Prevention, Shanghai 200336, China.

Abstract

There is an established association between air pollution and cardiovascular disease (CVD), which is likely to be mediated by systemic inflammation. The present study evaluated links between long-term exposure to ambient air pollution and high-sensitivity C reactive protein (hs-CRP) in an older Chinese adult cohort (n = 7915) enrolled in the World Health Organization (WHO) study on global aging and adult health (SAGE) China Wave 1 in 2008-2010. Multilevel linear and logistic regression models were used to assess the associations of particulate matter (PM) and nitrogen dioxide (NO₂) on log-transformed hs-CRP levels and odds ratios of CVD risk derived from CRP levels adjusted for confounders. A satellite-based spatial statistical model was applied to estimate the average community exposure to outdoor air pollutants (PM with an aerodynamic diameter of 10 μm or less (PM₁₀), 2.5 μm or less (PM_2.5), and 1 μm or less (PM₁) and NO₂) for each participant of the study. hs-CRP levels were drawn from dried blood spots of each participant. Each 10 μg/m³ increment in PM₁₀, PM_2.5, PM₁, and NO₂ was associated with 12.8% (95% confidence interval; (CI): 9.1, 16.6), 15.7% (95% CI: 10.9, 20.8), 10.2% (95% CI: 7.3, 13.2), and 11.8% (95% CI: 7.9, 15.8) higher serum levels of hs-CRP, respectively. Our findings suggest that air pollution may be an important factor in increasing systemic inflammation in older Chinese adults.

Keywords: C-reactive protein; CVD risk; China; air pollution; elderly; inflammatory marker.

Publication types

Research Support, Non-U.S. Gov't

MeSH terms

Adult
Aged
Air Pollutants* / analysis
Air Pollutants* / toxicity
Air Pollution* / adverse effects
Air Pollution* / analysis
C-Reactive Protein
China / epidemiology
Environmental Exposure / adverse effects
Environmental Exposure / analysis
Humans
Inflammation / chemically induced
Inflammation / epidemiology
Middle Aged
Nitrogen Dioxide / analysis
Nitrogen Dioxide / toxicity
Particulate Matter / analysis
Particulate Matter / toxicity

Substances

Air Pollutants
Particulate Matter
C-Reactive Protein
Nitrogen Dioxide