Long-Term Exposure to Air Pollution and All-Cause and Cause-Specific Mortality in Okayama, Japan

摘要

A number of studies have linked long-term exposure to air pollution, especially particulate matter with aerodynamic diameter < 2.5 μm (PM2.5), with cardiovascular disease and lung cancer mortality. But, most of the studies were conducted in the United States and Europe. Although literature is being accumulated, evidence is still limited in Asian countries. We therefore evaluated the association of long-term exposure to air pollution, especially PM2.5, and all-cause and cause-specific mortality among a cohort study in Okayama, Japan. We followed up a cohort of 76,591 participants who were enrolled in regular health checkups held in Okayama City in 2006 and 2007. After obtaining the participants' addresses at the census level, we assigned modeled PM2.5 data provided from the Atmospheric Composition Analysis Group to the participants. We evaluated mortality outcomes through record linkage to the vital statistics from the Ministry of Health, Labour, and Welfare in Japan. We focused on all-cause and cause-specific mortality such as cardiovascular disease and lung cancer as main health outcomes. We used Cox proportional hazard models adjusting for individual-level potential confounders and area-level socioeconomic status in the model. We present the findings in the symposium.