TY - JOUR
T1 - Long-term Traffic-related Air Pollutant Exposure and Amyotrophic Lateral Sclerosis Diagnosis in Denmark
T2 - A Bayesian Hierarchical Analysis
AU - Parks, Robbie M.
AU - Nunez, Yanelli
AU - Balalian, Arin A.
AU - Gibson, Elizabeth A.
AU - Hansen, Johnni
AU - Raaschou-Nielsen, Ole
AU - Ketzel, Matthias
AU - Khan, Jibran
AU - Brandt, Jørgen
AU - Vermeulen, Roel
AU - Peters, Susan
AU - Goldsmith, Jeff
AU - Re, Diane B.
AU - Weisskopf, Marc G.
AU - Kioumourtzoglou, Marianthi Anna
N1 - Funding Information:
R.M.P. was supported by the NIEHS K99 ES033742 and the Earth Institute post-doctoral research fellowship at Columbia University. Funding was also provided by the National Institute of Environmental Health Sciences (NIEHS) grants R01 ES030616, R01 ES028805, R01 AG066793, R21 ES028472, P30 ES009089, and P30 ES000002.
Publisher Copyright:
© 2022 Lippincott Williams and Wilkins. All rights reserved.
PY - 2022/11/1
Y1 - 2022/11/1
N2 - Background: Amyotrophic lateral sclerosis (ALS) is a fatal neurodegenerative disease. Limited evidence suggests ALS diagnosis may be associated with air pollution exposure and specifically traffic-related pollutants. Methods: In this population-based case-control study, we used 3,937 ALS cases from the Danish National Patient Register diagnosed during 1989-2013 and matched on age, sex, year of birth, and vital status to 19,333 population-based controls free of ALS at index date. We used validated predictions of elemental carbon (EC), nitrogen oxides (NOx), carbon monoxide (CO), and fine particles (PM2.5) to assign 1-, 5-, and 10-year average exposures pre-ALS diagnosis at study participants' present and historical residential addresses. We used an adjusted Bayesian hierarchical conditional logistic model to estimate individual pollutant associations and joint and average associations for traffic-related pollutants (EC, NOx, CO). Results: For a standard deviation (SD) increase in 5-year average concentrations, EC (SD = 0.42 µg/m3) had a high probability of individual association with increased odds of ALS (11.5%; 95% credible interval [CrI] = -1.0%, 25.6%; 96.3% posterior probability of positive association), with negative associations for NOx(SD = 20 µg/m3) (-4.6%; 95% CrI = 18.1%, 8.9%; 27.8% posterior probability of positive association), CO (SD = 106 µg/m3) (-3.2%; 95% CrI = 14.4%, 10.0%; 26.7% posterior probability of positive association), and a null association for nonelemental carbon fine particles (non-EC PM2.5) (SD = 2.37 µg/m3) (0.7%; 95% CrI = 9.2%, 12.4%). We found no association between ALS and joint or average traffic pollution concentrations. Conclusions: This study found high probability of a positive association between ALS diagnosis and EC concentration. Further work is needed to understand the role of traffic-related air pollution in ALS pathogenesis.
AB - Background: Amyotrophic lateral sclerosis (ALS) is a fatal neurodegenerative disease. Limited evidence suggests ALS diagnosis may be associated with air pollution exposure and specifically traffic-related pollutants. Methods: In this population-based case-control study, we used 3,937 ALS cases from the Danish National Patient Register diagnosed during 1989-2013 and matched on age, sex, year of birth, and vital status to 19,333 population-based controls free of ALS at index date. We used validated predictions of elemental carbon (EC), nitrogen oxides (NOx), carbon monoxide (CO), and fine particles (PM2.5) to assign 1-, 5-, and 10-year average exposures pre-ALS diagnosis at study participants' present and historical residential addresses. We used an adjusted Bayesian hierarchical conditional logistic model to estimate individual pollutant associations and joint and average associations for traffic-related pollutants (EC, NOx, CO). Results: For a standard deviation (SD) increase in 5-year average concentrations, EC (SD = 0.42 µg/m3) had a high probability of individual association with increased odds of ALS (11.5%; 95% credible interval [CrI] = -1.0%, 25.6%; 96.3% posterior probability of positive association), with negative associations for NOx(SD = 20 µg/m3) (-4.6%; 95% CrI = 18.1%, 8.9%; 27.8% posterior probability of positive association), CO (SD = 106 µg/m3) (-3.2%; 95% CrI = 14.4%, 10.0%; 26.7% posterior probability of positive association), and a null association for nonelemental carbon fine particles (non-EC PM2.5) (SD = 2.37 µg/m3) (0.7%; 95% CrI = 9.2%, 12.4%). We found no association between ALS and joint or average traffic pollution concentrations. Conclusions: This study found high probability of a positive association between ALS diagnosis and EC concentration. Further work is needed to understand the role of traffic-related air pollution in ALS pathogenesis.
UR - http://www.scopus.com/inward/record.url?scp=85139739020&partnerID=8YFLogxK
U2 - 10.1097/EDE.0000000000001536
DO - 10.1097/EDE.0000000000001536
M3 - Article
C2 - 35944145
AN - SCOPUS:85139739020
SN - 1044-3983
VL - 33
SP - 757
EP - 766
JO - Epidemiology
JF - Epidemiology
IS - 6
ER -