Mortality risk associated with greenness, air pollution, and physical activity in a representative U.S. cohort.

Several cohort studies suggest greenness is associated with decreased mortality risk. Potential confounding by or interactions between physical activity and air pollution remains unclear. This study evaluates associations of greenness, air pollution, and physical activity with mortality risk and investigates confounding and effect modification across these key risk factors. National Health Interview Survey (NHIS) data covering 1997-2014 were linked to the National Death Index to generate a cohort of 403,748 individuals with 39,528 deaths. Greenness, represented by census-tract Normalized Difference Vegetation Index (NDVI) for the seasonal period of May-October, was averaged over the years 2003-2016. Air pollution was estimated by census-tract level PM2.5 concentrations from 1999 to 2015. Cox Proportional Hazard Models were used to estimate hazard ratios (HR) for differences in greenness, air pollution, and physical activity. Alternative models that evaluated potential confounding and stratified models that evaluated effect modification were examined. Mortality risks were associated with PM2.5 (HR = 1.14, 95% CI: 1.09-1.19 per 10 µg/m3) and physical inactivity (1.49, 1.44-1.54 relative to sufficiently active), but not with greenness (1.01, 0.99-1.03 per IQR). The PM2.5-mortality association was mitigated at high levels of greenness (1.05, 0.91-1.22). There was no strong evidence of confounding between air pollution, physical activity, and greenness. However, stratified analysis suggested effect modification for PM2.5 and NDVI by physical activity. A significant protective greenness-mortality association was observed for only highly active individuals (0.91, 0.86-0.96). Also, relatively high PM2.5-mortality HRs were observed for more physically active individuals (1.25, 1.12-1.40). PM2.5 air pollution and physical inactivity are robustly associated with mortality risk. Greenness may be most beneficial and air pollution relatively harmful to highly active individuals. This analysis provides evidence that, in addition to not smoking, being physically active and living in a clean, green environment contributes to improved health and reduced risk of mortality.

Air pollution and cardiovascular disease.

An escalating body of epidemiologic and clinical research provides compelling evidence that exposure to fine particulate matter air pollution contributes to the development of cardiovascular disease and the triggering of acute cardiac events. There are 3 potential mediating pathways that have been implicated, including "systemic spillover," autonomic imbalance, and circulating particulate matter constituents. Further support that the increased morbidity and mortality attributed to air pollution comes from studies demonstrating the adverse cardiovascular effects of even brief periods of exposure to secondhand smoke. Accordingly, persons with known or suspected cardiovascular disease, the elderly, diabetic patients, pregnant women, and those with pulmonary disease should be counseled to limit leisure-time outdoor activities when air pollution is high. Recognizing the insidious and pervasive nature of air pollution, and the associated odds ratios and population attributable fractions for this widely underappreciated chemical trigger of acute cardiovascular events, may serve to maximize the potential for cardiovascular risk reduction by addressing at least a portion of the 10%-25% incidence of coronary disease that is unexplained by traditional risk factors.