Department of Occupational Safety and Health, College of Public Health, China Medical University, Taichung, Taiwan.
College of Human Science and Social Innovation, HungKuang University, Taichung, Taiwan.
Int J Hyg Environ Health. 2019 Apr;222(3):549-555. doi: 10.1016/j.ijheh.2019.02.004. Epub 2019 Feb 26.
Air pollution may cause specific genetic or epigenetic abnormalities and lead to the development of uterine fibroids (UFs). However, there have been limited studies evaluating the relationship between air pollutant exposure and the development of UFs.
We conducted a 10-year cohort-based case-control study in Taiwan from 2001 to 2010 using National Health Institute Research Database (NHIRD) to assess the association between air pollution and the UFs development among Taiwanese women. The case group consisted of 11,028 women newly diagnosed with UFs during the study period and the control group was 44,112 women aged 25-45 years using density sampling with a 1:4 matching on the date of birth from 224,675 women in 2001-2010. The average age of onset was 36 ± 4.37 years old. Daily concentrations of PM were estimated by linear mixed-effects model integrating aerosol optical depth (AOD) and meteorological variables; daily concentrations of O, CO, NO and SO were calculated by the Inverse Distance Weighting (IDW). The annual cumulative exposure to air pollutants during the study period was calculated corresponding to residential zip codes.
In the conditional logistic regression adjusting for confounders, the adjusted odds ratio (aOR) for UFs per 10 μg/m increase in PM was 1.105 (95% confidence interval: 1.069, 1.141), per 10 ppb increase in O was 1.075 (95% confidence interval: 1.039, 1.113), respectively.
Our study suggests that exposure to PM and O may increase the risk of developing UFs. Further studies are needed to confirm this novel finding.
空气污染可能导致特定的遗传或表观遗传异常，并导致子宫肌瘤（UFs）的发展。然而，评估空气污染物暴露与 UF 发展之间关系的研究有限。
我们在台湾进行了一项基于 10 年的队列病例对照研究，使用国家健康研究所研究数据库（NHIRD）评估了空气污染与台湾女性 UF 发展之间的关系。病例组由 11028 名在研究期间新诊断出 UF 的女性组成，对照组由 44112 名年龄在 25-45 岁的女性组成，采用密度采样，根据 2001-2010 年的 224675 名女性的出生日期进行 1:4 匹配。发病的平均年龄为 36±4.37 岁。通过整合气溶胶光学深度（AOD）和气象变量的线性混合效应模型来估计 PM 的日浓度；通过反距离权重法（IDW）计算 O、CO、NO 和 SO 的日浓度。根据居住邮政编码计算研究期间空气中污染物的年累积暴露量。
在调整混杂因素的条件逻辑回归中，PM 每增加 10μg/m3，UF 的调整后优势比（aOR）为 1.105（95%置信区间：1.069，1.141），O 每增加 10ppb，UF 的 aOR 为 1.075（95%置信区间：1.039，1.113）。
我们的研究表明，暴露于 PM 和 O 可能会增加 UF 发病的风险。需要进一步的研究来证实这一新发现。
