National Cohort Study of Long-Term Exposure to PM Components and Mortality in Medicare American Older Adults

Overview

Journal Environ Sci Technol

Publisher American Chemical Society

Specialty Environmental Health

Date 2023 Apr 19

PMID 37074132

Authors

Hua Hao

Yifan Wang

Qiao Zhu

Haisu Zhang

Andrew Rosenberg

Joel Schwartz

Heresh Amini

Aaron van Donkelaar

Randall Martin

Pengfei Liu

Rodney Weber

Armistead Russel

Maayan Yitshak-Sade

Howard Chang

Liuhua Shi

Affiliations

Soon will be listed here.

Abstract

There is increasing evidence linking long-term fine particulate matter (PM) exposure to negative health effects. However, the relative influence of each component of PM on health risk is poorly understood. In a cohort study in the contiguous United States between 2000 and 2017, we examined the effect of long-term exposure to PM main components and all-cause mortality in older adults who had to be at least 65 years old and enrolled in Medicare. We estimated the yearly mean concentrations of six key PM compounds, including black carbon (BC), organic matter (OM), soil dust (DUST), nitrate (NO), sulfate (SO), and ammonium (NH), using two independently sourced well-validated prediction models. We applied Cox proportional hazard models to evaluate the hazard ratios for mortality and penalized splines for assessing potential nonlinear concentration-response associations. Results suggested that increased exposure to PM mass and its six main constituents were significantly linked to elevated all-cause mortality. All components showed linear concentration-response relationships in the low exposure concentration ranges. Our research indicates that long-term exposure to PM mass and its essential compounds are strongly connected to increased mortality risk. Reductions of fossil fuel burning may yield significant air quality and public health benefit.

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