Long-term exposure to airborne particulate matter of 1 µm or less and blood pressure in healthy young adults: A national study with 1.2 million pregnancy planners.

ABSTRACT

No evidence exists concerning the effect of airborne particulate matter of 1 µm or less (PM1) on blood pressure of young adults planning for pregnancy. We collected health examination information of about 1.2 million couples (aged 18-45 years) from a national birth cohort in China from Jan 1, 2013 to Oct 1, 2014 and matched their home address to daily PM1 and PM2.5 concentrations, which were predicted by remote sensing information. Generalized additive mixed models were used to analyze associations between long-term exposure to PM and blood pressure, after controlling for individual factors. A 10 µg/m3 increase in PM1 was associated with increased systolic blood pressure (SBP) for 0.26 (95%CI 0.24, 0.29) mmHg in females and 0.29 (95%CI 0.26, 0.31) mmHg in males, respectively. PM1 was also associated with increased DBP for 0.22 (95%CI 0.20, 0.23) mmHg in females and 0.17 (95%CI 0.15, 0.19) mmHg in males, respectively. Similar effects on blood pressure were found for PM2.5, meanwhile, the effect of PM2.5 on SBP increased with the scale of PM1 included in PM2.5 (p for interaction term <0.01). In summary, long-term exposure to PM1 as well as PM2.5 was associated with increased SBP and DBP of Chinese young adults planning for pregnancy.