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Review
. 2015 Dec;2(4):388-98.
doi: 10.1007/s40572-015-0071-y.

Current Methods and Challenges for Epidemiological Studies of the Associations Between Chemical Constituents of Particulate Matter and Health

Jenna R Krall  1 , Howard H Chang  2 , Stefanie Ebelt Sarnat  3 , Roger D Peng  4 , Lance A Waller  5
Affiliations
Review

Current Methods and Challenges for Epidemiological Studies of the Associations Between Chemical Constituents of Particulate Matter and Health

Jenna R Krall et al. Curr Environ Health Rep. 2015 Dec.

Abstract

Epidemiological studies have been critical for estimating associations between exposure to ambient particulate matter (PM) air pollution and adverse health outcomes. Because total PM mass is a temporally and spatially varying mixture of constituents with different physical and chemical properties, recent epidemiological studies have focused on PM constituents. Most studies have estimated associations between PM constituents and health using the same statistical methods as in studies of PM mass. However, these approaches may not be sufficient to address challenges specific to studies of PM constituents, namely assigning exposure, disentangling health effects, and handling measurement error. We reviewed large, population-based epidemiological studies of PM constituents and health and describe the statistical methods typically applied to address these challenges. Development of statistical methods that simultaneously address multiple challenges, for example, both disentangling health effects and handling measurement error, could improve estimation of associations between PM constituents and adverse health outcomes.

Keywords: Chemical speciation; Environmental epidemiology; Health effects; Particulate matter constituents; Statistical methods.

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Conflict of interest statement

Compliance with Ethics Guidelines

Conflict of Interest Jenna R. Krall, Howard H. Chang, Stefanie Ebelt Sarnat, and Lance A. Waller declare that they have no conflict of interest.

Figures

Fig. 1
Fig. 1
Depiction of literature search conducted on PubMed for epidemiological studies of particulate matter constituents and adverse health outcomes through 31 March 2015
See this image and copyright information in PMC

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