Environmental exposures predict increased risk of death from cardiovascular disease

A recent study quantifies that cardiovascular risk posed by exposure to specific environmental factors. for example, that air pollution heightens the risk of heart disease mortality by 17 percent.

The research, published in PLOS ONE, is the first to examine the impact of multiple environmental risk factors on cardiovascular mortality and may lead to increased patient screening and preventive measures to improve chances of survival.

The study, known as the Golestan Cohort Study. Participants were from Golestan Province, a lower-income, multi-ethnic, and mostly rural area where cardiovascular disease is the leading cause of death.

Investigators used environmental data to create maps of eight environmental risk factors across Golestan: ambient fine particulate matter air pollution; how households cooked, heated, and ventilated their homes; how close they lived to traffic; proximity to hospitals that perform percutaneous coronary intervention; neighborhood socioeconomics; population density etc.

They found those exposed to the highest levels of outdoor air pollution were 17% more likely to die from heart disease compared to those unexposed, and 20 %more likely to experience all-cause mortality.

Reference: Michael B. Hadley ,Mahdi Nalini,Samrachana Adhikari,Jackie Szymonifka,Arash Etemadi,Farin Kamangar,Masoud Khoshnia,Tyler McChane,Akram Pourshams,Hossein Poustchi,Sadaf G. Sepanlou,Christian Abnet,Neal D. Freedman,Rajesh Vedanthan. https://doi.org/10.1371/journal.pone.0269650