Long-term exposure to ambient air pollutants and mental health status: A nationwide population-based cross-sectional study

Abstract

There is a suspected but unproven association between long-term exposure to ambient air pollution and mental health. The aim of this study is to investigate the association between long-term exposure to ambient air pollution and subjective stress, depressive disorders, health-related quality of life (QoL) and suicide. We selected 124,205 adults from the Korean Community Health Survey in 2013 who were at least 19 years old and who had lived in their current domiciles for > five years. Based on the computer-assisted personal interviews to measure subjective stress in daily life, EuroQoL-5 dimensions, depression diagnosis by a doctor, suicidal ideation, and suicidal attempts, we evaluated the risk of mental disorders using multiple logistic regression analysis according to the quartiles of air pollutants, such as particulate matter <10μm (PM10), nitrogen dioxide (NO2), carbon monoxide (CO), and sulfur dioxide, using yearly average concentration between August 2012 and July 2013. The prevalence of high stress, poor QoL, depressiveness, diagnosis of depression, and suicide ideation was positively associated with high concentrations of PM10, NO2, and CO after adjusting for confounding factors. Men were at increased risk of stress, poor QoL, and depressiveness from air pollution exposure than were women. The risk of higher stress or poor QoL in subjects < age 65 increased with air pollution more than did that in subjects ≥ age 65. Long-term exposure to ambient air pollution may be an independent risk factor for mental health disorders ranging from subjective stress to suicide ideation.

Health Risk Assessment of Inhalation Exposure to So2 and No2 Among Traders in a Traditional Market

“…Air pollution also increases the risk for acute respiratory infections (WHO, 2016). Longterm exposure to ambient air pollution was a risk factor of a wide range of potential mental health disorders (Shin, Park, & Choi, 2018).…”

Cancer Risk from Exposure to Particulate Matter and Ozone According to Obesity and Health-Related Behaviors: A Nationwide Population-Based Cross-Sectional Study

“…Even more subjects 50 to 60 years old with unhealthy behaviors exhibited higher cancer risk than subjects aged !60 years in stratified analysis in this study. Exposure response may help explain uncertainties; subjects 50 to 60 years old frequently exposed to pollutants with high activity compared with subjects aged !60 years (24,25). Interestingly, the effects of sex-and health-related behaviors on the associations between PM 10 and O 3 exposure and cancer risk were markedly stronger in obese subjects.…”

Analysis of Indicators of Quality of Life Due to Air Pollution in Slavonski Brod, Croatia

“…In this study, some of these results give possible evidence that the presence of the Oil Refinery "Brod" (Bosnia and Herzegovina), as one of the sources of air pollution, contributes and influences at certain level on a psychological satisfaction, mental health and on overall health condition of people living close to that polluted area. Many of various research studies are speaking to the same fact, that air pollution impairs the psychological state of people in the form of dissatisfaction in numerous areas of social and health aspects of human functioning [10], [12], [14], [15]. Besides, more precisely and more in this direction of thinking, there are some animal (e.g., rodent and feral dog) and human studies, which results are suggesting that air pollution exposure may lead to neuroinflammation, oxidative stress, cerebrovascular damage, and neurodegenerative pathology via several cellular and molecular pathways [11], [13].…”