ISGlobal, 08003 Barcelona, Spain.
Universitat Pompeu Fabra (UPF), 08003 Barcelona, Spain.
Environ Sci Technol. 2024 Sep 17;58(37):16248-16257. doi: 10.1021/acs.est.4c01509. Epub 2024 Sep 5.
Socioeconomic inequalities in the exposome have been found to be complex and highly context-specific, but studies have not been conducted in large population-wide cohorts from multiple countries. This study aims to examine the external exposome, encompassing individual and environmental factors influencing health over the life course, and to perform dimension reduction to derive interpretable characterization of the external exposome for multicountry epidemiological studies. Analyzing data from over 25 million individuals across seven European countries including 12 administrative and traditional cohorts, we utilized domain-specific principal component analysis (PCA) to define the external exposome, focusing on air pollution, the built environment, and air temperature. We conducted linear regression to estimate the association between individual- and area-level socioeconomic position and each domain of the external exposome. Consistent exposure patterns were observed within countries, indicating the representativeness of traditional cohorts for air pollution and the built environment. However, cohorts with limited geographical coverage and Southern European countries displayed lower temperature variability, especially in the cold season, compared to Northern European countries and cohorts including a wide range of urban and rural areas. The individual- and area-level socioeconomic determinants (i.e., education, income, and unemployment rate) of the urban exposome exhibited significant variability across the European region, with area-level indicators showing stronger associations than individual variables. While the PCA approach facilitated common interpretations of the external exposome for air pollution and the built environment, it was less effective for air temperature. The diverse socioeconomic determinants suggest regional variations in environmental health inequities, emphasizing the need for targeted interventions across European countries.
社会经济不平等在暴露组学中被发现是复杂的，高度特定于背景的，但尚未在来自多个国家的大型人群队列中进行研究。本研究旨在研究外部暴露组学，包括影响整个生命过程中健康的个体和环境因素，并进行降维处理，以便为多国流行病学研究提供可解释的外部暴露组学特征描述。该研究分析了来自七个欧洲国家的 2500 多万个人的数据，包括 12 个行政和传统队列，利用特定领域的主成分分析（PCA）来定义外部暴露组学，重点关注空气污染、建筑环境和空气温度。通过线性回归估计个体和地区社会经济地位与外部暴露组学各领域之间的关联。在各国内部观察到一致的暴露模式，表明传统队列对空气污染和建筑环境具有代表性。然而，覆盖范围有限的队列和南欧国家与北欧国家和包括广泛城乡地区的队列相比，在冬季特别是在低温季节的温度变化较小。城市暴露组学的个体和地区社会经济决定因素（即教育、收入和失业率）在欧洲地区表现出显著的差异，地区指标的关联比个体变量更强。尽管 PCA 方法促进了对空气污染和建筑环境的外部暴露组学的共同解释，但它对空气温度的效果较差。多样化的社会经济决定因素表明环境健康不平等存在地区差异，强调了在欧洲各国采取有针对性的干预措施的必要性。
