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. 2024 Dec 30;24(1):3612.
doi: 10.1186/s12889-024-21121-4.

The association between PM2.5 and frailty: evidence from 122 cities in China and 7 countries in Europe

Yanchao Wen  1   2 , Guiming Zhu  1   2 , Kexin Cao  1   2 , Jie Liang  1   2 , Xiangfeng Lu  3 , Tong Wang  4   5
Affiliations

The association between PM2.5 and frailty: evidence from 122 cities in China and 7 countries in Europe

Yanchao Wen et al. BMC Public Health. .

Abstract

Background: The accelerated aging process worldwide is placing a heavy burden on countries. PM2.5 particulate matter exposure is a significant factor affecting human health and is crucial in the aging process.

Methods: We utilized data from China Health and Retirement Longitudinal Study (CHARLS) and the Survey of Health, Aging, and Retirement in Europe (SHARE) to study the relationship between PM2.5 exposure and the frailty index. Acquire PM2.5 exposure data for China and Europe, match them according to geographic location within the database. Our study used frailty index to evaluate frailty, which comprises 29 items. We examined the association between PM2.5 and frailty index using fixed-effects regression models and Mendelian randomization (MR) analysis.

Results: We first examined the association between PM2.5 and frailty index using fixed-effects regression models, revealing a notable positive link across populations in China (coefficient = 0.0003, P = 0.0380) and Europe (Coefficient = 0.0019, P < 0.0001). This suggests that PM2.5 exposure is a significant risk factor for frailty, leading to accelerated frailty. Moreover, our MR analysis uncovered a possible causal association (OR = 1.2933, 95%CI: 1.2045-1.3820, P < 0.0001) between PM2.5 exposure and the frailty index.

Conclusions: Our findings indicate that long-term exposure to PM2.5 in the environment is a risk factor for physical frailty and may have a potential causal relationship. Given the rapid global aging trend, public health measures are needed to reduce PM2.5 concentrations and prevent frailty.

Keywords: Aging; Air pollution; Cohort study; Frailty index; PM2.5.

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Conflict of interest statement

Declarations. Ethical approval: CHARLS received ethical approval from the Biomedical Ethics Review Committee of Peking University (IRB00001052-11015) and all participants provided informed written consent. SHARE received ethical approval from the Ethics Council of the Max Planck Society and all participants provided informed written consent. GWAS summary data and air pollution data are public data and do not require ethical approval. Consent for publication: All authors approved the final manuscript and the submission to this journal. Competing interests: The authors declare no competing interests.

Figures

Fig. 1
Fig. 1
Data screening flowchart
Fig. 2
Fig. 2
122 Chinese cities and 7 European countries included and the number of respondents. The darker the color, the more respondents were included. A: China; B: Europe
Fig. 3
Fig. 3
The average PM2.5 concentrations from 2011 to 2015 across 122 cities in China and 7 European countries. The numbers represent the number of people surveyed included from each provincial-level unit in China or each European country. A: China; B: Europe
See this image and copyright information in PMC

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