Air Pollution Increases CV Risk in Certain Women

Women with type 2 diabetes are the subpopulation most sensitive to the adverse cardiovascular effects of air pollution, according to a recent study.

While previous research has linked air pollution exposure to increased risk of cardiovascular disease, the subpopulations most susceptible to these effects are not well defined.
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For their study, researchers examined data from a nationwide cohort of 114,537 women in the Nurses’ Health Study, assessing exposure to 3 sizes of particulate matter air pollution as well as rates of coronary heart disease and stroke.

Overall, increases in the size of particulate matter the women were exposed to were associated with small but not statistically significant increased risk of cardiovascular disease. However, in women with type 2 diabetes, pollution-associated cardiovascular risk was significantly higher than those without diabetes.

"We didn't expect diabetes to be the strongest factor in determining susceptibility," researchers concluded. "We looked at age, family history of cardiovascular disease, weight, smoking status and region of the country but diabetes was the most consistent across diseases and across different size fractions of particulate matter."

—Michael Potts

Reference:

Hart JE, Puett RC, Rextrode KM, et al. Effect modification of long-term air pollution exposures and the risk of incident cardiovascular disease in us women. J Am Heart Assoc. 2015 November 25 [epub ahead of print]. doi: 10.1161/JAHA.115.002301.