Improved Air Quality and Attenuated Lung Function Decline: Modification by Obesity in the SAPALDIA Cohort |
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| Authors: | Tamara Schikowski Emmanuel Schaffner Flurina Meier Harish C. Phuleria Andrea Vierk?tter Christian Schindler Susi Kriemler Elisabeth Zemp Ursula Kr?mer Pierre-Olivier Bridevaux Thierry Rochat Joel Schwartz Nino Künzli Nicole Probst-Hensch |
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| Affiliation: | 1.Swiss Tropical and Public Health Institute, Basel, Switzerland;2.University of Basel, Basel, Switzerland;3.Department of Epidemiology, Leibnitz Institut for Environmental Medicine at the Heinrich-Heine University (IUF), Düsseldorf, Germany;4.Division of Pulmonary Medicine, University Hospitals of Geneva, Geneva, Switzerland;5.Department of Environmental Health, Harvard School of Public Health, Boston, Massachusetts, USA |
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| Abstract: | Background: Air pollution and obesity are hypothesized to contribute to accelerated decline in lung function with age through their inflammatory properties.Objective: We investigated whether the previously reported association between improved air quality and lung health in the population-based SAPALDIA cohort is modified by obesity.Methods: We used adjusted mixed-model analyses to estimate the association of average body mass index (BMI) and changes in particulate matter with aerodynamic diameter ≤ 10 µm (PM10; ΔPM10) with lung function decline over a 10-year follow-up period.Results: Lung function data and complete information were available for 4,664 participants. Age-related declines in lung function among participants with high average BMI were more rapid for FVC (forced vital capacity), but slower for FEV1/FVC (forced expiratory volume in 1 sec/FVC) and FEF25–75 (forced expiratory flow at 25–75%) than declines among those with low or normal average BMI. Improved air quality was associated with attenuated reductions in FEV1/FVC, FEF25–75, and FEF25–75/FVC over time among low- and normal-BMI participants, but not overweight or obese participants. The attenuation was most pronounced for ΔFEF25–75/FVC (30% and 22% attenuation in association with a 10-μg/m3 decrease in PM10 among low- and normal-weight participants, respectively.)Conclusion: Our results point to the importance of considering health effects of air pollution exposure and obesity in parallel. Further research must address the mechanisms underlying the observed interaction.Citation: Schikowski T, Schaffner E, Meier F, Phuleria HC, Vierkötter A, Schindler C, Kriemler S, Zemp E, Krämer U, Bridevaux P-O, Rochat T, Schwartz J, Künzli N, Probst-Hensch N. 2013. Improved air quality and attenuated lung function decline: modification by obesity in the SAPALDIA cohort. Environ Health Perspect 121:1034–1039; http://dx.doi.org/10.1289/ehp.1206145 |
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