Abstract
BackgroundsEmerging evidence suggested that indoor air pollution caused long-term adverse effects on cognitive function among older adults who spend more than 85% of their time indoors. Although high indoor ventilation can mitigate the effect of indoor air pollution on cognition among the younger population, limited evidence revealed the association between indoor ventilation and cognition among older adults.MethodsA total of 11,853 participants aged 65 and over (female, 54.5%; mean age, 83.6 years) were included from the 2017–2018 wave of the Chinese Longitudinal Healthy Longevity Survey (CLHLS). Indoor ventilation frequency was measured by the self-reported frequency of opening windows per week in each season. Cognitive function was evaluated by the Mini-Mental State Examination (MMSE). Multivariate Poisson regression with robust error variance was applied to assess the association between overall indoor ventilation frequency and cognitive function. We fitted in two adjusted models: Model 1 was adjusted for demographic; model 2 was further adjusted for lifestyle, socioeconomic status, health conditions, and environmental factors. The same models were also applied to measure the association between seasonal indoor ventilation frequency and cognitive function.ResultsOf 11,853 older adults, 3035 (25.6%) had cognitive impairment. A high overall indoor ventilation frequency (indoor ventilation frequency: 6–8) was significantly associated with a 9% lower likelihood of cognitive impairment than low overall indoor ventilation frequency (indoor ventilation frequency: 0–3) among Chinese older adults [Relative risk (RR): 0.91, 95% Confidential Interval (CI): 0.83–0.99] in the full adjusted model. In the subgroup analysis in four seasons, high and intermediate indoor ventilation frequency in winter were significantly associated with 8% (RR: 0.92; 95%CI: 0.86–0.99) and 16% (RR: 0.84; 95%CI: 0.78–0.90) lower probability of cognitive impairment than low indoor ventilation frequency in the fully adjusted model among Chinese older adults, respectively.ConclusionsIn this nationally representative cohort, a higher frequency of house ventilation by opening windows was significantly associated with a lower risk of cognitive impairment among Chinese older adults aged 65 and over. These results offered robust evidence for policymaking and health intervention to prevent older adults from cognitive impairment or dementia in developing regions.
Highlights
Cognitive impairment has been considered as the preclinical symptom of dementia [1, 2]
Wang et al BMC Geriatrics (2022) 22:106. These results offered robust evidence for policymaking and health intervention to prevent older adults from cognitive impairment or dementia in developing regions
Epidemiological studies showed that indoor air pollution caused by cooking fuels and incense burning was associated with poor cognitive performance among older adults [11, 12]
Summary
Cognitive impairment has been considered as the preclinical symptom of dementia [1, 2]. Cognitive impairment was a prevalent geriatric syndrome among older adults. In 2018, a systematic review showed that the prevalence of cognitive impairment, increasing with age, was 14.7% among Chinese adults aged 60 years and older [3]. Accumulating evidence demonstrated that air pollutants including particulate matter (PM), carbon monoxide (CO), sulfur and nitrogen oxides, methane, volatile organic compounds (VOCs) were detrimental to cognitive function among older adults [4,5,6]. In addition to outdoor air pollution, indoor air quality may have a substantial impact on individuals’ health, especially among older adults who spend around 85% of their time indoors [7,8,9,10]. Epidemiological studies showed that indoor air pollution caused by cooking fuels and incense burning was associated with poor cognitive performance among older adults [11, 12]
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