Lee Seunghyun, Choi Joon Yul, Yoon Jin-Ha, Lee Wanhyung
The First Department of Internal Medicine, School of Medicine, University of Occupational and Environmental Health, Kitakyushu, Fukuoka 807-8555, Japan.
Epilepsy Center, Neurological Institute, Cleveland Clinic, Cleveland, OH 44195, USA.
J Clin Med. 2020 Dec 17;9(12):4069. doi: 10.3390/jcm9124069.
The impact of occupational and environmental exposure to external airborne agents on cognitive function, especially in incidence of dementia, is understudied. The present study was conducted to elucidate the association between severe external airborne agents' exposure and incidence of dementia among an elderly population and to explore the effects of exposure to severe external airborne agents on preclinical dementia using the screening test of dementia. From the National Health Insurance Service-Health Screening Cohort (NHIS-HealS, 2002-2015), 514,580 participants were used for data analysis. We estimated the standardized incidence ratio (SIR) according to the exposure to external airborne agents. Of the total participants ( = 514,580), 1340 (0.3%) experienced severe external airborne agents exposure, and 26,050 (5.1%) had been diagnosed with dementia. The SIRs (95%CI) of dementia in Alzheimer's disease, vascular dementia, dementia in other diseases, and unspecific dementia were 1.24 (1.01-1.49), 0.88 (0.37-1.32), 1.16 (0.01-2.77), and 0.69 (0.36-1.02), respectively. The risk of testing positive in the dementia screening significantly increased with exposure to severe external airborne agents after adjusting for all confounding variables. This study found that exposure to severe external airborne agents is a potential risk factor for dementia, especially in Alzheimer's disease. It is essential to create international awareness regarding the effect of airborne agents' exposure on dementia.
职业性和环境性暴露于外部空气传播因子对认知功能的影响，尤其是对痴呆症发病率的影响，目前研究较少。本研究旨在阐明老年人群中严重外部空气传播因子暴露与痴呆症发病率之间的关联，并使用痴呆症筛查测试探讨严重外部空气传播因子暴露对临床前期痴呆症的影响。从国民健康保险服务健康筛查队列（NHIS-HealS，2002 - 2015年）中选取了514,580名参与者进行数据分析。我们根据外部空气传播因子的暴露情况估计了标准化发病率（SIR）。在全部参与者（n = 514,580）中，1340人（0.3%）经历了严重外部空气传播因子暴露，26,050人（5.1%）被诊断患有痴呆症。阿尔茨海默病性痴呆、血管性痴呆、其他疾病所致痴呆和非特异性痴呆的痴呆症SIR（95%CI）分别为1.24（1.01 - 1.49）、0.88（0.37 - 1.32）、1.16（0.01 - 2.77）和0.69（0.36 - 1.02）。在对所有混杂变量进行调整后，痴呆症筛查呈阳性的风险随着严重外部空气传播因子暴露而显著增加。本研究发现，暴露于严重外部空气传播因子是痴呆症的一个潜在风险因素，尤其是在阿尔茨海默病中。提高国际社会对空气传播因子暴露对痴呆症影响的认识至关重要。
