Long-term cardiometabolic effects of ambient ozone pollution in a large Chinese population

Abstract

Limited studies investigated the effects of long-term ozone exposure on cardiometabolic health. We aimed to examine the association of long-term ozone exposure with a range of cardiometabolic diseases, as well as the subclinical indicators in Eastern China. The study included 202,042 adults living in 11 prefecture-level areas in Zhejiang Province between 2014 and 2021. Using a satellite-based model with a 1 × 1 km spatial resolution, we estimated residential 5-year average ozone exposures for each subject. Mixed-effects logistic and linear regression models were applied to explore the associations of ozone exposure with cardiometabolic diseases and subclinical indicators, respectively. We found that a 9% [95% confidence interval (95% CI): 7-12%] higher in odds of cardiometabolic disease per 10 μg/m³ increase in ozone exposure. Specifically, we also found higher prevalence of cardiovascular diseases (15%), stroke (19%), hypertension (7%), dyslipidemia (15%), and hypertriglyceridemia (9%) associated with ozone exposure. However, we did not find significant associations between ozone exposure and coronary heart disease, myocardial infarction, or diabetes mellitus. Long-term ozone exposures were also significantly associated with adverse changes in systolic blood pressure, diastolic blood pressure, total serum cholesterol, triglyceride, low-density lipoprotein cholesterol, high-density lipoprotein cholesterol, glucose concentration, and body mass index. Our results showed that people with lower education levels, those over 50 years old, and those who were overweight or obese were more susceptible to the effects of ozone on cardiometabolic diseases. Our findings demonstrated the detrimental effects of long-term ozone exposure on cardiometabolic health, emphasizing the need for ozone control strategies to reduce the burden of cardiometabolic diseases.

Keywords: Air pollution; Cardiometabolic diseases; Cardiovascular diseases indicators; China; Ozone.