Long-term exposure to air pollution and severe COVID-19 in Catalonia: a population-based cohort study.
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ABSTRACT:
SUBMITTER: Ranzani O
PROVIDER: S-EPMC10209206 | biostudies-literature | 2023 May
REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature
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Long-term exposure to air pollution and severe COVID-19 in Catalonia: a population-based cohort study.
Ranzani Otavio O Alari Anna A Olmos Sergio S Milà Carles C Rico Alex A Ballester Joan J Basagaña Xavier X Chaccour Carlos C Dadvand Payam P Duarte-Salles Talita T Foraster Maria M Nieuwenhuijsen Mark M Sunyer Jordi J Valentín Antònia A Kogevinas Manolis M Lazcano Uxue U Avellaneda-Gómez Carla C Vivanco Rosa R Tonne Cathryn C
Nature communications 20230524 1
The association between long-term exposure to ambient air pollutants and severe COVID-19 is uncertain. We followed 4,660,502 adults from the general population in 2020 in Catalonia, Spain. Cox proportional models were fit to evaluate the association between annual averages of PM<sub>2.5</sub>, NO<sub>2</sub>, BC, and O<sub>3</sub> at each participant's residential address and severe COVID-19. Higher exposure to PM<sub>2.5,</sub> NO<sub>2,</sub> and BC was associated with an increased risk of COV ...[more]
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Project description:BackgroundAmbient air pollution has been associated with COVID-19 disease severity and antibody response induced by infection.ObjectivesWe examined the association between long-term exposure to air pollution and vaccine-induced antibody response.MethodsThis study was nested in an ongoing population-based cohort, COVICAT, the GCAT-Genomes for Life cohort, in Catalonia, Spain, with multiple follow-ups. We drew blood samples in 2021 from 1,090 participants of 2,404 who provided samples in 2020, and we included 927 participants in this analysis. We measured immunoglobulin M (IgM), IgG, and IgA antibodies against five viral-target antigens, including receptor-binding domain (RBD), spike-protein (S), and segment spike-protein (S2) triggered by vaccines available in Spain. We estimated prepandemic (2018-2019) exposure to fine particulate matter [PM ≤2.5μm in aerodynamic diameter (PM2.5)], nitrogen dioxide (NO2), black carbon (BC), and ozone (O3) using Effects of Low-Level Air Pollution: A Study in Europe (ELAPSE) models. We adjusted estimates for individual- and area-level covariates, time since vaccination, and vaccine doses and type and stratified by infection status. We used generalized additive models to explore the relationship between air pollution and antibodies according to days since vaccination.ResultsAmong vaccinated persons not infected by SARS-CoV-2 (n=632), higher prepandemic air pollution levels were associated with a lower vaccine antibody response for IgM (1 month post vaccination) and IgG. Percentage change in geometric mean IgG levels per interquartile range of PM2.5 (1.7 μg/m3) were -8.1 (95% CI: -15.9, 0.4) for RBD, -9.9 (-16.2, -3.1) for S, and -8.4 (-13.5, -3.0) for S2. We observed a similar pattern for NO2 and BC and an inverse pattern for O3. Differences in IgG levels by air pollution levels persisted with time since vaccination. We did not observe an association of air pollution with vaccine antibody response among participants with prior infection (n=295).DiscussionExposure to air pollution was associated with lower COVID-19 vaccine antibody response. The implications of this association on the risk of breakthrough infections require further investigation. https://doi.org/10.1289/EHP11989.
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Project description:Ecological studies suggested a link between air pollution and severe COVID-19 outcomes, while studies accounting for individual-level characteristics are limited. In the present study, we aimed to investigate the impact of short-term ambient air pollution exposure on disease severity among a cohort of 569 laboratory confirmed COVID-19 patients admitted to designated hospitals in Zhejiang province, China, from January 17 to March 3, 2020, and elucidate the possible biological processes involved using transcriptomics. Compared with mild cases, severe cases had higher proportion of medical conditions as well as unfavorable results in most of the laboratory tests, and manifested higher air pollution exposure levels. Higher exposure to air pollutants was associated with increased risk of severe COVID-19 with odds ratio (OR) of 1.89 (95% confidence interval (CI): 1.01, 3.53), 2.35 (95% CI: 1.20, 4.61), 2.87 (95% CI: 1.68, 4.91), and 2.01 (95% CI: 1.10, 3.69) for PM2.5, PM10, NO2 and CO, respectively. OR for NO2 remained significant in two-pollutant models after adjusting for other pollutants. Transcriptional analysis showed 884 differentially expressed genes which mainly were enriched in virus clearance related biological processes between patients with high and low NO2 exposure levels, indicating that compromised immune response might be a potential underlying mechanistic pathway. These findings highlight the impact of short-term air pollution exposure, particularly for NO2, on COVID-19 severity, and emphasize the significance in mitigating the COVID-19 burden of commitments to improve air quality.
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Project description:RationaleSeveral studies have linked long-term exposure to particulate air pollution with increased cardiopulmonary mortality; only two have also examined incident circulatory disease.ObjectivesTo examine associations of individualized long-term exposures to particulate and gaseous air pollution with incident myocardial infarction and stroke, as well as all-cause and cause specific mortality.MethodsWe estimated long-term residential air pollution exposure for more than 100,000 participants in the California Teachers Study, a prospective cohort of female public school professionals.We linked geocoded residential addresses with inverse distance-weighted monthly pollutant surfaces for two measures of particulate matter and for several gaseous pollutants. We examined associations between exposure to these pollutants and risks of incident myocardial infarction and stroke, and of all-cause and cause-specific mortality, using Cox proportional hazards models.Measurements and main resultsWe found elevated hazard ratios linking long-term exposure to particulate matter less than 2.5 μm in aerodynamic diameter (PM2.5), scaled to an increment of 10 μg/m3 with mortality from ischemic heart disease (IHD) (1.20; 95% confidence interval [CI], 1.02-1.41) and, particularly among postmenopausal women, incident stroke (1.19; 95% CI, 1.02-1.38). Long-term exposure to particulate matter less than 10 μm in aerodynamic diameter (PM10) was associated with elevated risks for IHD mortality (1.06; 95% CI, 0.99-1.14) and incident stroke (1.06; 95% CI, 1.00-1.13), while exposure to nitrogen oxides was associated with elevated risks for IHD and all cardiovascular mortality.ConclusionsThis study provides evidence linking long-term exposure to PM2.5 and PM10 with increased risks of incident stroke as well as IHD mortality; exposure to nitrogen oxides was also related to death from cardiovascular diseases.
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