Environmental exposures predict increased risk of death from cardiovascular disease

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