Specific Environmental Factors Tied to Mortality Risk

MONDAY, June 27, 2022 (HealthDay News) — Several environmental factors demonstrate associations with mortality when adjusting for individual risk factors, according to a study published online June 24 in PLOS ONE.

Michael B. Hadley, M.D., from the Icahn School of Medicine at Mount Sinai in New York City, and colleagues developed a spatial survival model to estimate associations between environmental exposures (ambient fine particulate matter air pollution; household fuel use and ventilation; proximity to traffic; distance to percutaneous coronary intervention center; socioeconomic environment; population density; local land use; and nighttime light exposure) and all-cause and cardiovascular mortality among 50,045 individuals living in a low-income region in Iran.

The researchers found that ambient fine particulate matter air pollution predicted all-cause mortality (hazard ratio [HR], 1.20; 95 percent confidence interval [CI], 1.07 to 1.36) and cardiovascular mortality (HR, 1.17; 95 percent CI, 0.98 to 1.39). Similarly, biomass fuel use without chimney predicted all-cause mortality (HR, 1.23; 95 percent CI, 0.99 to 1.53) and cardiovascular mortality (HR, 1.36; 95 percent CI, 0.99 to 1.87), as did kerosene fuel use without chimney (all-cause mortality: HR, 1.09; 95 percent CI, 0.97 to 1.23; cardiovascular mortality: HR, 1.19; 95 percent CI, 1.01 to 1.41). The multivariable model effectively predicted both all-cause mortality (area under curve, 0.76) and cardiovascular mortality (area under curve, 0.81) in a validation cohort.

“Mortality attributable to environmental factors represents a critical opportunity for targeted policies and programs,” the authors write.

Abstract/Full Text