Associations of air pollution mixtures with ambulatory blood pressure: The MobiliSense sensor-based study

Sanjeev Bista; Lia Chatzidiakou; Roderic L Jones; Tarik Benmarhnia; Nicolas Postel-Vinay; Basile Chaix

doi:10.1016/j.envres.2023.115720

Associations of air pollution mixtures with ambulatory blood pressure: The MobiliSense sensor-based study

Environ Res. 2023 Jun 15:227:115720. doi: 10.1016/j.envres.2023.115720. Epub 2023 Mar 20.

Authors

Sanjeev Bista¹, Lia Chatzidiakou², Roderic L Jones², Tarik Benmarhnia³, Nicolas Postel-Vinay⁴, Basile Chaix⁵

Affiliations

¹ Sorbonne Université, INSERM, Institut Pierre Louis d'Epidémiologie et de Santé Publique IPLESP, Nemesis Team, Faculté de Médecine Saint-Antoine, 27 Rue Chaligny, 75012, Paris, France. Electronic address: sanjeev.bista@iplesp.upmc.fr.
² Department of Chemistry, University of Cambridge, Cambridge, CB2 1EW, UK.
³ Herbert Wertheim School of Public Health and Scripps Institution of Oceanography, University of California, 9500 Gilman Drive #0725, San Diego, CA, La Jolla, 92093, USA.
⁴ Hypertension Unit, Hôpital Européen Georges Pompidou, France.
⁵ Sorbonne Université, INSERM, Institut Pierre Louis d'Epidémiologie et de Santé Publique IPLESP, Nemesis Team, Faculté de Médecine Saint-Antoine, 27 Rue Chaligny, 75012, Paris, France.

PMID: 36940820
DOI: 10.1016/j.envres.2023.115720

Abstract

Air pollution is acknowledged as a determinant of blood pressure (BP), supporting the hypothesis that air pollution, via hypertension and other mechanisms, has detrimental effects on human health. Previous studies evaluating the associations between air pollution exposure and BP did not consider the effect that air pollutant mixtures may have on BP. We investigated the effect of exposure to single species or their synergistic effects as air pollution mixture on ambulatory BP. Using portable sensors, we measured personal concentrations of black carbon (BC), nitrogen dioxide (NO₂), nitrogen monoxide (NO), carbon monoxide (CO), ozone (O₃), and particles with aerodynamic diameters below 2.5 μm (PM_2.5). We simultaneously collected ambulatory BP measurements (30-min intervals, N = 3319) of 221 participants over one day of their lives. Air pollution concentrations were averaged over 5 min to 1 h before each BP measurement, and inhaled doses were estimated across the same exposure windows using estimated ventilation rates. Fixed-effect linear models as well as quantile G-computation techniques were applied to associate air pollutants' individual and combined effects with BP, adjusting for potential confounders. In mixture models, a quartile increase in air pollutant concentrations (BC, NO₂, NO, CO, and O₃) in the previous 5 min was associated with a 1.92 mmHg (95% CI: 0.63, 3.20) higher systolic BP (SBP), while 30-min and 1-h exposures were not associated with SBP. However, the effects on diastolic BP (DBP) were inconsistent across exposure windows. Unlike concentration mixtures, inhalation mixtures in the previous 5 min to 1 h were associated with increased SBP. Out-of-home BC and O₃ concentrations were more strongly associated with ambulatory BP outcomes than in-home concentrations. In contrast, only the in-home concentration of CO reduced DBP in stratified analyses. This study shows that exposure to a mixture of air pollutants (concentration and inhalation) was associated with elevated SBP.

Keywords: Air pollution exposure; Ambulatory blood pressure; G-computation; Mixture methods; Sensors.

Publication types

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

MeSH terms

Air Pollutants / analysis
Air Pollutants / toxicity
Air Pollution* / statistics & numerical data
Blood Pressure Monitoring, Ambulatory
Blood Pressure*
Environmental Exposure* / statistics & numerical data
Humans
Nitrogen Dioxide / analysis
Ozone / analysis
Ozone / toxicity
Particulate Matter / analysis
Particulate Matter / toxicity

Substances

Air Pollutants
Nitrogen Dioxide
Ozone
Particulate Matter