Skip Navigation
U.S. flag

An official website of the United States government

Dot gov

The .gov means it’s official.
Federal government websites often end in .gov or .mil. Before sharing sensitive information, make sure you’re on a federal government site.

Https

The site is secure.
The https:// ensures that you are connecting to the official website and that any information you provide is encrypted and transmitted securely.

National Institute of Environmental Health Sciences

Use this QR code to view the newest version of this document
Use this QR code to view the newest version of this document

Your Environment. Your Health.

Publication Detail

Title: Long-term exposure to residential ambient fine and coarse particulate matter and incident hypertension in post-menopausal women.

Authors: Honda, Trenton; Eliot, Melissa N; Eaton, Charles B; Whitsel, Eric; Stewart, James D; Mu, Lina; Suh, Helen; Szpiro, Adam; Kaufman, Joel D; Vedal, Sverre; Wellenius, Gregory A

Published In Environ Int, (2017 Aug)

Abstract: Long-term exposure to ambient particulate matter (PM) has been previously linked with higher risk of cardiovascular events. This association may be mediated, at least partly, by increasing the risk of incident hypertension, a key determinant of cardiovascular risk. However, whether long-term exposure to PM is associated with incident hypertension remains unclear.Using national geostatistical models incorporating geographic covariates and spatial smoothing, we estimated annual average concentrations of residential fine (PM2.5), respirable (PM10), and course (PM10-2.5) fractions of particulate matter among 44,255 post-menopausal women free of hypertension enrolled in the Women's Health Initiative (WHI) clinical trials. We used time-varying Cox proportional hazards models to evaluate the association between long-term average residential pollutant concentrations and incident hypertension, adjusting for potential confounding by sociodemographic factors, medical history, neighborhood socioeconomic measures, WHI study clinical site, clinical trial, and randomization arm.During 298,383 person-years of follow-up, 14,511 participants developed incident hypertension. The adjusted hazard ratios per interquartile range (IQR) increase in PM2.5, PM10, and PM10-2.5 were 1.13 (95% CI: 1.08, 1.17), 1.06 (1.03, 1.10), and 1.01 (95% CI: 0.97, 1.04), respectively. Statistically significant concentration-response relationships were identified for PM2.5 and PM10 fractions. The association between PM2.5 and hypertension was more pronounced among non-white participants and those residing in the Northeastern United States.In this cohort of post-menopausal women, ambient fine and respirable particulate matter exposures were associated with higher incidence rates of hypertension. These results suggest that particulate matter may be an important modifiable risk factor for hypertension.

PubMed ID: 28521192 Exiting the NIEHS site

MeSH Terms: Aged; Air Pollutants/analysis; Cardiovascular Diseases/epidemiology; Cohort Studies; Environmental Exposure/adverse effects*; Female; Humans; Hypertension/epidemiology; Hypertension/etiology*; Incidence; Middle Aged; Particle Size; Particulate Matter/adverse effects*; Particulate Matter/analysis; Postmenopause; Proportional Hazards Models; Prospective Studies; Risk Factors; United States/epidemiology

Back
to Top