Associations between air pollutants and blood pressure in an ethnically diverse cohort of adolescents in London, England

TY - JOUR

T1 - Associations between air pollutants and blood pressure in an ethnically diverse cohort of adolescents in London, England

AU - Karamanos, A

AU - Lu, Y

AU - Mudway, I S

AU - Ayis, S

AU - Kelly, F J

AU - Beevers, S D

AU - Dajnak, D

AU - Fecht, D

AU - Elia, C

AU - Tandon, S

AU - Webb, A J

AU - Grande, A J

AU - Molaodi, O R

AU - Maynard, M J

AU - Cruickshank, J K

AU - Harding, S

N1 - Funding Information: The study was funded by the MRC (10.13039/N4 501100000265, MC_U130015185/ MC_UU_12017/1/ MC_UU_12017/13) North Central London Consortium and the Primary Care Research Network. This work was also supported by the MRC Centre for Environment and Health, which is currently funded by the Medical Research Council (MR/S019669/1, 2019-2024). Infrastructure support for the Department of Epidemiology and Biostatistics was provided by the NIHR Imperial Biomedical Research Centre. The funders had no role in study design, data collection and analysis, decision to publish, or preparation of the manuscript. Publisher Copyright: © 2023 Karamanos et al. This is an open access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License, which permits unrestricted use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original author and source are credited.

PY - 2023/2/8

Y1 - 2023/2/8

N2 - Longitudinal evidence on the association between air pollution and blood pressure (BP) in adolescence is scarce. We explored this association in an ethnically diverse cohort of schoolchildren. Sex-stratified, linear random-effects modelling was used to examine how modelled residential exposure to annual average nitrogen dioxide (NO2), particulate matter (PM2.5, PM10) and ozone (O3), measures in μg/m3, associated with blood pressure. Estimates were based on 3,284 adolescents; 80% from ethnic minority groups, recruited from 51 schools, and followed up from 11-13 to 14-16 years old. Ethnic minorities were exposed to higher modelled annual average concentrations of pollution at residential postcode level than their White UK peers. A two-pollutant model (NO2 & PM2.5), adjusted for ethnicity, age, anthropometry, and pubertal status, highlighted associations with systolic, but not diastolic BP. A μg/m3 increase in NO2 was associated with a 0.30 mmHg (95% CI 0.18 to 0.40) decrease in systolic BP for girls and 0.19 mmHg (95% CI 0.07 to 0.31) decrease in systolic BP for boys. In contrast, a 1 μg/m3 increase in PM2.5 was associated with 1.34 mmHg (95% CI 0.85 to 1.82) increase in systolic BP for girls and 0.57 mmHg (95% CI 0.04 to 1.03) increase in systolic BP for boys. Associations did not vary by ethnicity, body size or socio-economic advantage. Associations were robust to adjustments for noise levels and lung function at 11-13 years. In summary, higher ambient levels of NO2 were associated with lower and PM2.5 with higher systolic BP across adolescence, with stronger associations for girls.

AB - Longitudinal evidence on the association between air pollution and blood pressure (BP) in adolescence is scarce. We explored this association in an ethnically diverse cohort of schoolchildren. Sex-stratified, linear random-effects modelling was used to examine how modelled residential exposure to annual average nitrogen dioxide (NO2), particulate matter (PM2.5, PM10) and ozone (O3), measures in μg/m3, associated with blood pressure. Estimates were based on 3,284 adolescents; 80% from ethnic minority groups, recruited from 51 schools, and followed up from 11-13 to 14-16 years old. Ethnic minorities were exposed to higher modelled annual average concentrations of pollution at residential postcode level than their White UK peers. A two-pollutant model (NO2 & PM2.5), adjusted for ethnicity, age, anthropometry, and pubertal status, highlighted associations with systolic, but not diastolic BP. A μg/m3 increase in NO2 was associated with a 0.30 mmHg (95% CI 0.18 to 0.40) decrease in systolic BP for girls and 0.19 mmHg (95% CI 0.07 to 0.31) decrease in systolic BP for boys. In contrast, a 1 μg/m3 increase in PM2.5 was associated with 1.34 mmHg (95% CI 0.85 to 1.82) increase in systolic BP for girls and 0.57 mmHg (95% CI 0.04 to 1.03) increase in systolic BP for boys. Associations did not vary by ethnicity, body size or socio-economic advantage. Associations were robust to adjustments for noise levels and lung function at 11-13 years. In summary, higher ambient levels of NO2 were associated with lower and PM2.5 with higher systolic BP across adolescence, with stronger associations for girls.

KW - Male

KW - Female

KW - Humans

KW - Adolescent

KW - Child

KW - Air Pollutants/adverse effects

KW - Blood Pressure

KW - Nitrogen Dioxide/analysis

KW - London

KW - Ethnicity

KW - Environmental Exposure/adverse effects

KW - Minority Groups

KW - Air Pollution/adverse effects

KW - Particulate Matter/adverse effects

KW - Ozone/adverse effects

KW - England/epidemiology

UR - http://www.scopus.com/inward/record.url?scp=85147783497&partnerID=8YFLogxK

U2 - 10.1371/journal.pone.0279719

DO - 10.1371/journal.pone.0279719

M3 - Article

C2 - 36753491

SN - 1932-6203

VL - 18

SP - e0279719

JO - PLoS ONE

JF - PLoS ONE

IS - 2 February

M1 - e0279719

ER -