Long-term exposure to low-level particulate air pollution and Parkinson's disease diagnosis - A Finnish register-based study

Isabell Katharina Rumrich; Julian Lin; Antti Korhonen; Lise Marie Frohn; Camilla Geels; Jørgen Brandt; Sirpa Hartikainen; Otto Hänninen; Anna-Maija Tolppanen

doi:10.1016/j.envres.2023.115944

Long-term exposure to low-level particulate air pollution and Parkinson's disease diagnosis - A Finnish register-based study

Environ Res. 2023 Jul 15:229:115944. doi: 10.1016/j.envres.2023.115944. Epub 2023 Apr 20.

Authors

Isabell Katharina Rumrich¹, Julian Lin², Antti Korhonen³, Lise Marie Frohn⁴, Camilla Geels⁵, Jørgen Brandt⁶, Sirpa Hartikainen⁷, Otto Hänninen⁸, Anna-Maija Tolppanen⁹

Affiliations

¹ School of Pharmacy, University of Eastern Finland, P.O. Box 1627, 70211, Kuopio, Finland; Department of Health Security, Finnish Institute for Health and Welfare, P.O. Box 95, 70701, Kuopio, Finland. Electronic address: isabell.rumrich@uef.fi.
² School of Pharmacy, University of Eastern Finland, P.O. Box 1627, 70211, Kuopio, Finland. Electronic address: julian.lin@uef.fi.
³ Department of Health Security, Finnish Institute for Health and Welfare, P.O. Box 95, 70701, Kuopio, Finland. Electronic address: antti.korhonen@thl.fi.
⁴ Department of Environmental Science, Aarhus University, Frederiksborgvej 399, 4000, Roskilde, Denmark. Electronic address: lmf@envs.au.dk.
⁵ Department of Environmental Science, Aarhus University, Frederiksborgvej 399, 4000, Roskilde, Denmark. Electronic address: cag@envs.au.dk.
⁶ Department of Environmental Science, Aarhus University, Frederiksborgvej 399, 4000, Roskilde, Denmark. Electronic address: jbr@envs.au.dk.
⁷ School of Pharmacy, University of Eastern Finland, P.O. Box 1627, 70211, Kuopio, Finland. Electronic address: sirpa.hartikainen@uef.fi.
⁸ Department of Health Security, Finnish Institute for Health and Welfare, P.O. Box 95, 70701, Kuopio, Finland. Electronic address: otto.hanninen@thl.fi.
⁹ School of Pharmacy, University of Eastern Finland, P.O. Box 1627, 70211, Kuopio, Finland. Electronic address: anna-maija.tolppanen@uef.fi.

PMID: 37086879
DOI: 10.1016/j.envres.2023.115944

Abstract

Background: There is mixed evidence for an association between particulate matter air pollution and Parkinson's disease despite biological plausibility.

Objectives: We studied the association between particulate air pollution, its components and Parkinson's disease (PD) risk.

Methods: We conducted a nested case-control study within the population of Finland using national registers. A total of 22,189 incident PD cases diagnosed between 1996 and 2015 were matched by age, sex and region with up to seven controls (n = 148,009) per case. Time weighted average air pollution exposure to particulate matter and its components was modelled at the residential addresses, accounting for move history, for the 16 years preceding diagnosis. Conditional logistic regression analysis was used to evaluate the association between air pollution and PD. Different exposure periods (6-16 years, 11-16 years, 5-10 years, 0-5 years) before the index date (date of PD diagnosis) were applied.

Results: Time-weighted average exposures were relatively low at 12.1 ± 6.5 μg/m³ (mean ± SD) for PM₁₀ and 7.7 ± 3.2 μg/m³ for PM_2.5. No associations were found between PM_2.5 or PM₁₀ exposure 6-16 years before index date and PD (OR: 0.99; 95% CI: 0.96, 1.02; per IQR of 3.9 μg/m³ and OR: 0.99; 95% CI: 0.96, 1.01; per IQR of 7.8 μg/m³, respectively). However, inverse associations were observed for the same exposure period with black carbon (OR: 0.96; 95% CI: 0.93, 0.99; per IQR of 0.6 μg/m³), sulphate (OR: 0.79; 95% CI: 0.68, 0.92; per IQR of 1.2 μg/m³), secondary organic aerosols (OR: 0.86; 95% CI: 0.80, 0.93; per IQR of 0.1 μg/m³) and sea salt (OR: 0.92; 95% CI: 0.87, 0.98; per IQR of 0.1 μg/m³).

Discussion: Low-level particulate matter air pollution was not associated with increased risk of incident PD in this Finnish nationwide population. The observed weak inverse associations with specific particle components should be investigated further.

Keywords: Air pollution; Long-term exposure; Parkinson's disease; Particle component; Particulate matter; Register-based epidemiology.

Publication types

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

MeSH terms

Air Pollutants* / analysis
Case-Control Studies
Dust / analysis
Environmental Exposure / analysis
Finland / epidemiology
Humans
Parkinson Disease* / epidemiology
Parkinson Disease* / etiology
Particulate Matter / analysis

Substances

Air Pollutants
Particulate Matter
Dust