Associations between air pollution and perceived stress: the Veterans Administration Normative Aging Study
View/ Open
Author
Kloog, Itai
Spiro, Avron
Vokonas, Pantel
Published Version
https://doi.org/10.1186/1476-069X-14-10Metadata
Show full item recordCitation
Mehta, Amar J, Laura D Kubzansky, Brent A Coull, Itai Kloog, Petros Koutrakis, David Sparrow, Avron Spiro, Pantel Vokonas, and Joel Schwartz. 2015. “Associations between air pollution and perceived stress: the Veterans Administration Normative Aging Study.” Environmental Health 14 (1): 10. doi:10.1186/1476-069X-14-10. http://dx.doi.org/10.1186/1476-069X-14-10.Abstract
Background: There is mixed evidence suggesting that air pollution may be associated with increased risk of developing psychiatric disorders. We aimed to investigate the association between air pollution and non-specific perceived stress, often a precursor to development of affective psychiatric disorders. Methods: This longitudinal analysis consisted of 987 older men participating in at least one visit for the Veterans Administration Normative Aging Study between 1995 and 2007 (n = 2,244 visits). At each visit, participants were administered the 14-item Perceived Stress Scale (PSS), which quantifies stress experienced in the previous week. Scores ranged from 0–56 with higher scores indicating increased stress. Differences in PSS score per interquartile range increase in moving average (1, 2, and 4-weeks) of air pollution exposures were estimated using linear mixed-effects regression after adjustment for age, race, education, physical activity, anti-depressant medication use, seasonality, meteorology, and day of week. We also evaluated effect modification by season (April-September and March-October for warm and cold season, respectively). Results: Fine particles (PM2.5), black carbon (BC), nitrogen dioxide, and particle number counts (PNC) at moving averages of 1, 2, and 4-weeks were associated with higher perceived stress ratings. The strongest associations were observed for PNC; for example, a 15,997 counts/cm3 interquartile range increase in 1-week average PNC was associated with a 3.2 point (95%CI: 2.1-4.3) increase in PSS score. Season modified the associations for specific pollutants; higher PSS scores in association with PM2.5, BC, and sulfate were observed mainly in colder months. Conclusions: Air pollution was associated with higher levels of perceived stress in this sample of older men, particularly in colder months for specific pollutants. Electronic supplementary material The online version of this article (doi:10.1186/1476-069X-14-10) contains supplementary material, which is available to authorized users.Other Sources
http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC4417295/pdf/Terms of Use
This article is made available under the terms and conditions applicable to Other Posted Material, as set forth at http://nrs.harvard.edu/urn-3:HUL.InstRepos:dash.current.terms-of-use#LAACitable link to this page
http://nrs.harvard.edu/urn-3:HUL.InstRepos:16120884
Collections
- HMS Scholarly Articles [17921]
- SPH Scholarly Articles [6362]
Contact administrator regarding this item (to report mistakes or request changes)