Background: Short-term exposure to air pollution has adverse effects among patients with asthma, but whether long-term exposure to air pollution is a cause of adult-onset asthma is unclear.
Objective: We aimed to investigate the association between air pollution and adult onset asthma.
Methods: Asthma incidence was prospectively assessed in six European cohorts. Exposures studied were annual average concentrations at home addresses for nitrogen oxides assessed for 23,704 participants (including 1,257 incident cases) and particulate matter (PM) assessed for 17,909 participants through ESCAPE land-use regression models and traffic exposure indicators. Meta-analyses of cohort-specific logistic regression on asthma incidence were performed. Models were adjusted for age, sex, overweight, education, and smoking and included city/area within each cohort as a random effect.
Results: In this longitudinal analysis, asthma incidence was positively, but not significantly, associated with all exposure metrics, except for PMcoarse. Positive associations of borderline significance were observed for nitrogen dioxide [adjusted odds ratio (OR) = 1.10; 95% CI: 0.99, 1.21 per 10 μg/m3; p = 0.10] and nitrogen oxides (adjusted OR = 1.04; 95% CI: 0.99, 1.08 per 20 μg/m3; p = 0.08). Nonsignificant positive associations were estimated for PM10 (adjusted OR = 1.04; 95% CI: 0.88, 1.23 per 10 μg/m3), PM2.5 (adjusted OR = 1.04; 95% CI: 0.88, 1.23 per 5 μg/m3), PM2.5absorbance (adjusted OR = 1.06; 95% CI: 0.95, 1.19 per 10–5/m), traffic load (adjusted OR = 1.10; 95% CI: 0.93, 1.30 per 4 million vehicles × meters/day on major roads in a 100-m buffer), and traffic intensity (adjusted OR = 1.10; 95% CI: 0.93, 1.30 per 5,000 vehicles/day on the nearest road). A nonsignificant negative association was estimated for PMcoarse (adjusted OR = 0.98; 95% CI: 0.87, 1.14 per 5 μg/m3).
Conclusions: Results suggest a deleterious effect of ambient air pollution on asthma incidence in adults. Further research with improved personal-level exposure assessment (vs. residential exposure assessment only) and phenotypic characterization is needed.
1VIMA (Aging and Chronic Diseases, Epidemiological and Public Health Approaches), U1168, INSERM (Institut national de la santé et de la recherche médicale), Villejuif, France; 2UMR-S 1168, UVSQ (Université Versailles St-Quentin-en-Yvelines), Montigny le Bretonneux, France; 3Centre for Research in Epidemiology and Population Health (CESP), U1018, Respiratory and Environmental Epidemiology Team, INSERM, Villejuif, France; 4UMRS 1018, Université Paris Sud, Villejuif, France; 5CREAL, Centre for Research in Environmental Epidemiology, Barcelona, Spain; 6IAB, Team of Environmental Epidemiology Applied to Reproduction and Respiratory Health, INSERM, Grenoble, France; 7IAB, Team of Environmental Epidemiology Applied to Reproduction and Respiratory Health, Université Grenoble Alpes, Grenoble, France; 8IAB, Team of Environmental Epidemiology Applied to Reproduction and Respiratory Health, CHU de Grenoble, Grenoble, France; 9Swiss TPH (Swiss Tropical and Public Health Institute), Basel, Switzerland; 10University of Basel, Basel, Switzerland; 11IUF, Leibniz Research Institute for Environmental Medicine, Düsseldorf, Germany; 12Department of Public Health and Pediatrics, University of Turin, Turin, Italy; 13Institute for Risk Assessment Sciences, University Utrecht, Utrecht, the Netherlands; 14Julius Center for Health Sciences and Primary Care, University Medical Center Utrecht, Utrecht, the Netherlands; 15MRC-PHE Centre for Environment and Health, Imperial College London, London, United Kingdom; 16Nutrition, Hormones and Women Health Team, U1018, Centre for Research in Epidemiology and Population Health (CESP), INSERM, Villejuif, France; 17InVS, French Institute for Public Health Surveillance, Saint-Maurice, France; 18Unit of Epidemiology and Medical Statistics, Department of Public Health and Community Medicine, University of Verona, Verona, Italy; 19Centre for Environmental Policy, Faculty of Natural Sciences, Imperial College London, London, United Kingdom; 20Section of Biostatistics and Clinical Epidemiology, Department of Public Health, Neuroscience, Experimental and Forensic Medicine, University of Pavia, Pavia, Italy; 21Division of Pulmonary Medicine, University Hospitals of Geneva, Geneva, Switzerland; 22MRC Unit for Lifelong Health and Ageing, Research Department of Epidemiology and Public Health, University College, London, United Kingdom; 23Institute of Epidemiology, German Research Center for Environmental Health (GmbH), Helmholtz Zentrum München, Neuherberg, Germany; 24Department of Medical Sciences, Respiratory Medicine and Allergology, Uppsala University Hospital, Uppsala, Sweden; 25Department of Respiratory Epidemiology & Public Health, Imperial College London, London, United Kingdom; 26Public Health and Clinical Medicine, Umea University, University Hospital, Umea, Sweden; 27Pédiatrie, CHU de Grenoble, Grenoble France; 28Directorate of Public Health and Primary Care, Imperial College Healthcare NHS Trust, The Bays, London, United Kingdom
*These authors contributed equally to this work. **Steering Committee ESCAPE Workpackage 4 (Respiratory Health in Adults). #Deceased.
Recommended Citation:
Bénédicte Jacquemin,1,2,et al. Ambient Air Pollution and Adult Asthma Incidence in Six European Cohorts (ESCAPE)[J]. Environmental Health Perspectives,2015-01-01,Volume 123(Issue 6):613