Short-Term Exposures to Traffic-Related Air Pollution and Pulse Wave Velocity in a Cohort of Children and Youth with Type 1 Diabetes

Abstract

Background: Changes in vascular function may play a role in the association between short-term exposures to particulate matter (PM) air pollution and cardiovascular events. However, few studies have evaluated whether arterial stiffness increases in response to acute PM exposures, particularly among individuals who are at higher risk for developing cardiovascular disease (CVD), such as children and young adults with type 1 diabetes (T1D).Objectives: We examined the relationship of short-term exposures to PM2.5, elemental carbon (EC) and Atmospheric Dispersion Modeling System (ADMS)-Roads traffic-related PM near roadways with pulse wave velocity (PWV), a measure of arterial stiffness, using data from the SEARCH for Diabetes in Youth Study (SEARCH).Methods: PWV, lifestyle and demographic data were collected at a SEARCH study visit. Pollutant exposures were estimated using spatio-temporal models and assigned to the residential address of each participant for 7 days prior to the study visit. We estimated associations between different exposure windows (daily and weekly averages) of each air pollutant and PWV using separate generalized linear models adjusted for demographic and lifestyle variables.Results: Approximately 44% of the 352 participants were female and 86% were white, with a mean age of 14.6 years. In fully adjusted models, comparing the 25th and 75th percentiles of PM2.5 mass exposures on lag day 0 resulted in a 5.8% higher PWV (95% CI: 0.7%, 11.2%). No other significant associations were observed.Conclusions: In this population of youth with T1D, PWV was associated with PM2.5 mass on lag day 0. However, no associations were observed for acute exposures to other traffic-related air pollutants. In further analysis, we will examine the relationships of PM2.5 mass and traffic-related air pollutant exposures with additional measures of cardiovascular structure and function.