Wood Dylan, Evangelopoulos Dimitris, Kitwiroon Nutthida, Stewart Gregor, Vu Tuan, Smith James, Beevers Sean, Katsouyanni Klea
Environmental Research Group, School of Public Health, Imperial College London, London, UK.
MRC Centre for Environment and Health, Environmental Research Group, Imperial College London, London, UK.
J Expo Sci Environ Epidemiol. 2025 Jan 14. doi: 10.1038/s41370-025-00745-7.
Accurate estimates of personal exposure to ambient air pollution are difficult to obtain and epidemiological studies generally rely on residence-based estimates, averaged spatially and temporally, derived from monitoring networks or models. Few epidemiological studies have compared the associated health effects of personal exposure and residence-based estimates.
To evaluate the association between exposure to air pollution and cognitive function using exposure estimates taking mobility and location into account.
Residence-based dispersion model estimates of ambient NO, PM and PM were assigned to 768 London-dwelling participants of the English Longitudinal Study of Ageing. The London Hybrid Exposure Model was implemented to adjust estimates per pollutant to reflect the estimated time-activity patterns of each participant based on age and residential location. Single pollutant linear mixed-effects models were fit for both exposure assessment methods to investigate the associations between assigned pollutant concentrations and cognitive function over a follow-up period of up to 15 years.
Increased long-term exposures to residence-based ambient NO (IQR: 11.10 µg/m), PM (2.35 µg/m), and PM (2.50 µg/m) were associated with decreases of -0.10 [95% CI: -0.20, 0.00], -0.07 [-0.11, -0.02] and -0.14 [-0.21, -0.06], respectively, in composite memory score. Similar decreases were observed for executive function scores (-0.38 [-0.58, -0.18], -0.11 [-0.20, -0.02] and -0.14 [-0.29, 0.01], respectively). When applying personalised exposure estimates, which were substantially lower, similar decreases were observed for composite memory score per IQR, but a consistent pattern of slightly more adverse effects with executive function score was evident.
The present study constructed a framework through which time-activity information derived from a representative sample could be applied to estimates of ambient air pollution concentrations assigned to individuals in epidemiological cohort studies, with the intention of adjusting commonly used residence-based estimates to reflect population mobility and time spent in various microenvironments. Estimates of exposure were markedly lower when incorporating time-activity, likely because people in European populations spend a large proportion of their time indoors, where their exposure to ambient air pollution may be reduced through infiltration, which is not taken into account in residence-based ambient estimates. Further work into such methods could provide insights into the efficacy of personalising exposure estimates.
准确估算个人暴露于环境空气污染的情况很难实现，流行病学研究通常依赖于基于居住地的估算值，这些估算值是通过监测网络或模型在空间和时间上进行平均得出的。很少有流行病学研究比较过个人暴露估算值和基于居住地的估算值对健康的相关影响。
使用考虑了出行和位置的暴露估算值，评估空气污染暴露与认知功能之间的关联。
将基于居住地的环境一氧化氮（NO）、细颗粒物（PM）和超细颗粒物（PM）扩散模型估算值分配给英国老龄化纵向研究中768名居住在伦敦的参与者。采用伦敦混合暴露模型，针对每种污染物调整估算值，以反映基于年龄和居住位置的每位参与者的估计时间 - 活动模式。对两种暴露评估方法均拟合单污染物线性混合效应模型，以研究在长达15年的随访期内，分配的污染物浓度与认知功能之间的关联。
长期暴露于基于居住地的环境NO（四分位数间距：11.10μg/m）、PM（2.35μg/m）和PM（2.50μg/m）增加，分别与综合记忆得分下降-0.10 [95%置信区间：-0.20, 0.00]、-0.07 [-0.11, -0.02]和-0.14 [-0.21, -0.06]相关。执行功能得分也有类似程度的下降（分别为-0.38 [-0.58, -0.18]、-0.11 [-0.20, -0.02]和-0.14 [-0.29, 0.01]）。当应用明显更低的个性化暴露估算值时，每四分位数间距的综合记忆得分也有类似程度的下降，但执行功能得分呈现出更明显的不利影响的一致模式。
本研究构建了一个框架，通过该框架可以将从代表性样本中得出的时间 - 活动信息应用于流行病学队列研究中分配给个体的环境空气污染浓度估算，目的是调整常用的基于居住地的估算值，以反映人群的流动性以及在各种微环境中花费的时间。纳入时间 - 活动因素后，暴露估算值明显更低，这可能是因为欧洲人群中很大一部分时间待在室内，在室内他们通过渗透接触到的环境空气污染可能会减少，而基于居住地的环境估算中并未考虑这一点。对这类方法的进一步研究可以为个性化暴露估算的效果提供见解。
