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Title: Association between long-term exposure to traffic particles and blood pressure in the Veterans Administration Normative Aging Study.

Authors: Schwartz, Joel; Alexeeff, Stacey E; Mordukhovich, Irina; Gryparis, Alexandros; Vokonas, Pantel; Suh, Helen; Coull, Brent A

Published In Occup Environ Med, (2012 Jun)

Abstract: Particulate air pollution is associated with cardiovascular events, but the mechanisms are not fully understood. The main objective was to assess the relationship between long-term exposure to traffic-related air pollution and blood pressure (BP).The authors used longitudinal data from 853 elderly men participating in the Veterans Administration Normative Aging Study, followed during 1996-2008. Long-term average exposures to traffic particles were created from daily predictions of black carbon (BC) exposure at the geocoded address of each subject, using a validated spatiotemporal model based on ambient monitoring at 82 Boston-area locations. The authors examined the association of these exposures with BP using a mixed model. The authors included the following covariates: age, body mass index, smoking, alcohol, fasting glucose, creatinine clearance, use of cardiovascular medication, education, census-level poverty, day of week and season of clinical visit.The authors found significant positive associations between 1-year average BC exposure and both systolic and diastolic blood pressure. An IQR increase in 1-year average BC exposure (0.32 μg/m(3)) was associated with a 2.64 mm Hg increase in systolic blood pressure (95% CI 1.47 to 3.80) and a 2.41 mm Hg increase in diastolic blood pressure (95% CI 1.77 to 3.05).Long-term exposure to traffic particles is associated with increased BP, which may explain part of the association with myocardial infarctions and cardiovascular deaths reported in cohort studies.

PubMed ID: 22383587 Exiting the NIEHS site

MeSH Terms: Aged; Air Pollutants/analysis; Air Pollutants/toxicity*; Air Pollution/adverse effects*; Air Pollution/analysis; Air Pollution/statistics & numerical data; Blood Pressure/drug effects*; Boston; Follow-Up Studies; Health Surveys; Humans; Hypertension/chemically induced*; Inhalation Exposure/adverse effects*; Inhalation Exposure/analysis; Inhalation Exposure/statistics & numerical data; Linear Models; Longitudinal Studies; Male; Soot/analysis; Soot/toxicity*; United States; United States Department of Veterans Affairs; Vehicle Emissions/analysis; Vehicle Emissions/toxicity*

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