Fine Particle Sources and Cognitive Function in An Older Puerto Rican Cohort in Greater Boston

Details

• Alternative Title:
  Environ Epidemiol
• Personal Author:
  Wurth, Renee ; Kioumourtzoglou, Marianthi-Anna ; Tucker, Katherine L. ; Griffith, John ; Manjourides, Justin ; Suh, Helen
• Description:
  Background
  
  Puerto Ricans living in the mainland US have substantially higher rates of impairment to cognitive performance as compared to non-Hispanic Whites, with air pollutant exposures a potential risk factor. We investigated whether exposures to specific air pollution sources were associated with performance across several cognitive domains in a cohort of Puerto Rican older adults.
  
  Objectives
  
  To investigate the association between sources of PM2.5 and cognitive performance in each of five cognitive domains.
  
  Methods
  
  We obtained demographic, health, and cognitive function data for 1500 elderly participants of the Boston Puerto Rican Health Study (BPRHS). Cognitive function was assessed in each of two waves for five domains: verbal memory, recognition, mental processing, and executive and visuospatial function. To these data, we linked concentrations of fine particulate matter (PM2.5) and its components, black carbon (BC), nickel, sulfur, and silicon, as tracers for PM2.5 from traffic, oil combustion, coal combustion, and resuspended dust, respectively. Associations between each PM2.5 component and cognitive domain were examined using linear mixed models.
  
  Results
  
  One year moving average exposures to BC were significantly associated with decreased verbal memory (−0.38;95% CI: −0.46,−0.30), recognition (−0.35; 95% CI: −0.46,−0.25), mental processing (−1.14; 95% CI: −1.55,−0.74), and executive function (−0.94; 95% CI: −1.31,−0.56). Similar associations were found for nickel. Associations for sulfur, and silicon, and PM2.5 were generally null, although sulfur (−0.51; 95% CI −0.75,−0.28) silicon (−0.25; 95% CI: −0.36,−0.13) and PM2.5 (−0.35; 95% CI: −0.57,−0.12) were associated with decreased recognition.
  
  Conclusion
  
  Long-term exposures to BC and nickel, tracers of traffic and oil combustion, respectively, were associated with decreased cognitive function across all domains, except visuospatial function.
  
  
• Source:
  Environ Epidemiol. 2(3)
• Pubmed ID:
  30506018
• Pubmed Central ID:
  PMC6261496
• Document Type:
  Journal Article
• Funding:
  P50 HL105185/HL/NHLBI NIH HHSUnited States/ ; P01 AG023394/AG/NIA NIH HHSUnited States/ ; T42 OH008416/OH/NIOSH CDC HHSUnited States/ ; T32 ES007069/ES/NIEHS NIH HHSUnited States/ ; R01 ES022657/ES/NIEHS NIH HHSUnited States/
• Volume:
  2
• Issue:
  3
• Collection(s):
  CDC Public Access
• Main Document Checksum:
  urn:sha256:7d271c170910df4d72efdb7581cb3cdb289d52a94ddc2dae2a2e9e4f702e14b1
• Download URL:
  https://stacks.cdc.gov/view/cdc/76904/cdc_76904_DS1.pdf
• File Type:
  [PDF - 346.59 KB ]