• Air pollution linked to higher risk of C

    From ScienceDaily@1:317/3 to All on Wed Apr 20 22:30:48 2022
    Air pollution linked to higher risk of COVID-19 in young adults

    Date:
    April 20, 2022
    Source:
    Karolinska Institutet
    Summary:
    Residential exposure to ambient air pollutants is linked to an
    elevated risk of SARS-CoV-2 infection, an observational study of
    young adults in Stockholm, Sweden shows.



    FULL STORY ========================================================================== Residential exposure to ambient air pollutants is linked to an elevated
    risk of SARS-CoV-2 infection, an observational study of young adults
    in Stockholm, Sweden shows. The study was conducted by researchers from Karolinska Institutet and is published inJAMA Network Open.


    ========================================================================== Since pollutants in outdoor air can increase the risk of respiratory
    infections such as influenza and SARS, the COVID-19 pandemic aroused
    fears that they could also contribute to the risk of SARS-CoV-2
    infection. Studies have also shown that areas of poor air quality have
    more cases of COVID-19.

    Researchers at Karolinska Institutet have now studied this more closely
    by examining the link between estimated exposure to air pollutants at
    home addresses and positive PCR tests for SARS-CoV-2 in young adults in Stockholm, Sweden.

    The results show that exposure to certain traffic-related air pollutants
    is associated with a greater likelihood of testing positive.

    "Our results add to the growing body of evidence that air pollution has a
    part to play in COVID-19 and support the potential benefit of improving
    air quality," says Olena Gruzieva, associate professor at the Institute
    of Environmental Medicine at Karolinska Institutet and one of the study's
    last authors.

    The study draws on the population-based BAMSE project, which has regularly followed over 4,000 participants in Stockholm from birth. By linking
    these data to the national communicable disease registry (SmiNet),
    the researchers identified 425 individuals who had tested positive for SARS-CoV-2 (PCR test) between May 2020 and the end of March 2021. The
    average age of the participants was 26, and 54 per cent were women.



    ========================================================================== Daily outdoor concentrations of different air pollutants at the
    participants' home addresses were estimated using dispersion models. The pollutants were particles with a diameter less than 10 micrometers (PM10)
    and 2.5 micrometers (PM2.5), black carbon and nitrogen oxides.

    The researchers studied the associations between infection and exposure
    to air pollutants in the days before the positive PCR test, on the day
    of the test and on later control days. Each participant served as his
    or her own control on these different occasions.

    The results show associations between infection risk and exposure to
    PM10 and PM2.5 two days before a positive test and exposure to black
    carbon one day before. They found no link between the risk of infection
    and nitrogen oxides.

    The increase in risk was of an order of magnitude around seven per cent
    per particle exposure increase equivalent to the interquartile range,
    i.e. between the first quartile (25%) and the third quartile (75%)
    of the estimated particle concentrations.

    "Seven per cent doesn't sound much, but given that everyone is more
    or less exposed to air pollutants, the association may be of great
    significance to public health," says Erik Mele'n, professor of paediatrics
    at the Department of Clinical Science and Education, So"dersjukhuset, Karolinska Institutet, BAMSE project leader and the study's joint
    last author.

    The observed association was not influenced by gender, smoking, overweight
    or asthma.

    The researchers note that the results might be affected by the willingness
    to take a PCR test and the fact that many of the young adults were
    asymptomatic or had only mild symptoms following infection. The study
    can also not rule out the possibility that time-varying confounding
    factors also influenced the results.

    The researchers are now examining the link between air pollutants and
    post- COVID symptoms in young adults.

    The first author of the paper is Zhebin Yu, postdoctoral researcher in
    Olena Gruzieva's group. The study was financed by Forte, the Swedish
    Research Council, the Swedish Heart-Lung Foundation and Region
    Stockholm. The authors have reported no conflicts of interest.


    ========================================================================== Story Source: Materials provided by Karolinska_Institutet. Note: Content
    may be edited for style and length.


    ========================================================================== Journal Reference:
    1. Zhebin Yu, Tom Bellander, Anna Bergstro"m, Joakim Dillner, Kristina
    Eneroth, Magnuz Engardt, Antonios Georgelis, Inger Kull, Petter
    Ljungman, Go"ran Pershagen, Massimo Stafoggia, Erik Mele'n, Olena
    Gruzieva, Catarina Almqvist, Niklas Andersson, Natalia Ballardini,
    Anna Bergstro"m, Sophia Bjo"rkander, Petter Brodin, Anna Castel,
    Sandra Ekstro"m, Antonios Georgelis, Lennart Hammarstro"m, Qiang
    Pan-Hammarstro"m, Jenny Hallberg, Christer Jansson, Maura Kere,
    Inger Kull, Andre' Lauber, Alexandra Lo"vquist, Erik Mele'n,
    Jenny Mjo"sberg, Ida Mogensen, Lena Palmberg, Go"ran Pershagen,
    Niclas Roxhed, Jochen Schwenk. Association of Short- term Air
    Pollution Exposure With SARS-CoV-2 Infection Among Young Adults
    in Sweden. JAMA Network Open, 2022; 5 (4): e228109 DOI: 10.1001/
    jamanetworkopen.2022.8109 ==========================================================================

    Link to news story: https://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2022/04/220420112958.htm

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