Long-term air pollution exposure and markers of cardiometabolic health in the National Longitudinal Study of Adolescent to Adult Health (Add Health) Study

Abstract

Background: Air pollution exposure is associated with cardiovascular morbidity and mortality. Although exposure to air pollution early in life may represent a critical window for development of cardiovascular disease risk factors, few studies have examined associations of long-term air pollution exposure with markers of cardiovascular and cardiometabolic health in young adults. Objectives: By combining health data from the National Longitudinal Study of Adolescent to Adult Health (Add Health) with air pollution data from the Fused Air Quality Surface using Downscaling (FAQSD) archive, we: (1) calculated multi-year estimates of exposure to ozone (O3) and particulate matter with an aerodynamic diameter <2.5um (PM2.5) for Add Health participants; and (2) estimated associations between air pollution exposures and multiple markers of cardiometabolic health. Methods: Add Health is a nationally representative longitudinal cohort study of over 20,000 adolescents aged 12-19 in the United States (US) in 1994-95 (Wave I). Participants have been followed through adolescence and into adulthood with five in-home interviews. Estimated daily concentrations of O3 and PM2.5 at census tracts were obtained from the FAQSD archive and used to generate tract-level annual averages of O3 and PM2.5 concentrations. We estimated associations between average O3 and PM2.5 exposures from 2002-07 and markers of cardiometabolic health measured at Wave IV (2008-09), including hypertension, hyperlipidemia, body mass index (BMI), diabetes, C-reactive protein, and metabolic syndrome. Results: The final sample size was 11,259 individual participants. The average age of participants at Wave IV was 28.4 years (range: 24-34 years). In models adjusting for age, race/ethnicity, and sex, long-term O3 exposure (2002-07) was associated with elevated odds of hypertension, with an odds ratio (OR) of 1.015 (95% confidence interval [CI]: 1.011, 1.029); obesity (1.022 [1.004, 1.040]); diabetes (1.032 [1.009,1.054]); and metabolic syndrome (1.028 [1.014, 1.041]); PM2.5 exposure (2002-07) was associated with elevated odds of hypertension (1.022 [1.001, 1.045]). Conclusion: Findings suggest that long-term ambient air pollution exposure, particularly O3 exposure, is associated with cardiometabolic health in early adulthood.

Polygenic Indices (aka Polygenic Scores) in Social Science: A Guide for Interpretation and Evaluation

“…Consistent with evidence from other methods, comparisons of sibship estimates to that of standard GWASs suggest both that confounding of standard GWAS estimates of direct genetic effects persists even with adjustments and that this confounding can be substantially mitigated by estimation of allelic effects within families (Choi et al 2020; Veller and Coop 2023; Young et al 2019). Available evidence suggests that bias from residual confounding is particularly acute for several complex social traits, including, inter alia , educational attainment, number of children, depressive symptoms, and age at first birth (Howe et al 2022).…”

“…The PCs control for any genetic aspects of common ancestry that could be spuriously correlated with the PGS and the outcome of interest (Price et al 2006). (p. 5) Similarly, Braudt and Harris (2020) suggested including PCs in PGI studies:…”

“…17 I also do not cover issues related to conventional measurement error or an approach dealing with PGI measurement error (see, e.g., Becker et al 2021; Pingault et al 2022). 18 I reiterate that this is not intended as a “how to do PGI studies” guide (see Choi et al 2020; Mills et al 2020); instead, this is a guide to aid social scientists in interpreting and evaluating these studies.…”

“…Facilitating the uptake of PGIs in social science, several rich, laudably accessible social science data sets, such as the Health and Retirement Study (HRS), the Wisconsin Longitudinal Study (WLS), and the National Longitudinal Study of Adolescent to Adult Health (Add Health), include premade PGIs. Outcomes for which PGIs are available range from biomedical conditions, such as coronary artery disease and plasma cortisol, to various social traits and behaviors, such as educational attainment, smoking behavior, going to pubs or social clubs weekly, lifetime number of sexual partners, cannabis use, and age at first birth (Becker et al 2021; Braudt and Harris 2020; Ware et al 2021). With the inclusion of premade PGIs, social scientists no longer need work with high-dimensional genotype data or use complex statistical genetic analyses to construct these measures.…”

Cognitive Function in People With Familial Risk of Depression

“…Details are provided in the eMethods in Supplement 1. The Add Health PRS was created centrally by the Add Health team based on the same 2019 meta-analysis. The UK Biobank PRS was not created from the 2019 meta-analysis because UK Biobank was a discovery cohort in that GWAS.…”