Long-term exposure to traffic-related air pollution and cardiovascular health in a Greek cohort study

Abstract

Our objective is to evaluate the association of exposure to traffic-related air pollution with the incidence of fatal and non-fatal ischemic heart disease (IHD), stroke and total cardiovascular disease (CVD) events in a Greek cohort. We used data from the European Prospective Investigation on Nutrition and Cancer (EPIC) for 2752 subjects followed from 1997 to 2011, whose residence was in 10 municipalities of the Greater Athens area. Air pollution exposure estimation was based on a spatio-temporal land use regression model linking geo-coded residential addresses to long-term average NO2 and PM10 concentrations. We conducted Cox proportional hazards regression analysis, adjusting for potential confounders. Hazard ratios (HR) above 1 (not all statistically significant) were associated with higher PM10 exposure for all outcomes. Weaker associations were found with NO2 exposure. Specifically, the estimated HR for a CVD event associated with 10 μg/m(3) increase in long-term exposure to PM10 was 1.50 (1.05-2.16, p-value: 0.027). The relationship was more evident for subjects ≤50 years old at recruitment. Associations of PM10 and NO2 exposure with IHD events were found only among women with HRs respectively of 2.24 (0.89-5.64, p-value: 0.086) and 1.54 (1.01-2.37, p-value: 0.046) associated with 10 μg/m(3) increase in the corresponding pollutant. In conclusion, the present study suggests that long-term exposure to traffic-related air pollution has an impact on CVD and IHD morbidity, particularly among women and younger subjects.

Keywords: Air pollution; Cardiovascular incidence; Coronary heart disease; Longitudinal studies; Morbidity.