Abstract
It is well reported that individuals spend up to 90% of their daily time indoors, with between 60% to 90% of this time being spent in the home. Using a cross-sectional study design in a population of 111 healthy adults (mean age: 52.3 ± 9.9 years; 65% women), we investigated the association between exposure to total volatile organic compounds (VOCs) in indoor residential environments and measures of central arterial stiffness, known to be related to cardiovascular risk. Indoor VOC concentrations were measured along with ambulatory measures of pulse pressure (cPP), augmentation index (cAIx) and cAIx normalized for heart rate (cAIx75), over a continuous 24-h period. Pulse wave velocity (cfPWV) was determined during clinical assessment. Multiple regression analysis was performed to examine the relationship between measures of arterial stiffness and VOCs after adjusting for covariates. Higher 24-h, daytime and night-time cAIx was associated with an interquartile range increase in VOCs. Similar effects were shown with cAIx75. No significant effects were observed between exposure to VOCs and cPP or cfPWV. After stratifying for sex and age (≤50 years; >50 years), effect estimates were observed to be greater and significant for 24-h and daytime cAIx in men, when compared to women. No significant effect differences were seen between age groups with any measure of arterial stiffness. In this study, we demonstrated that residential indoor VOCs exposure was adversely associated with some measures of central arterial stiffness, and effects were different between men and women. Although mechanistic pathways remain unclear, these findings provide a possible link between domestic VOCs exposure and unfavourable impacts on individual-level cardiovascular disease risk.
Highlights
Exposure to environmental factors such as air pollution have previously been suggested to amplify the effect of traditional risk factors, such as blood pressure and smoking [1,2], on cardiovascular risk [3,4].Volatile organic compounds (VOCs) comprise a large, diverse and common group of chemical pollutants that are present in both outdoor and indoor air
(aortic) augmentation index; cAIx75—central augmentation index normalised for augmentationcentral index; cAIx75—central augmentation index normalised for heart heart rate; cPP—central pulse pressure; Carotid–femoral pulse wave velocity (cfPWV)—carotid–femoral pulse wave velocity; ¶—this rate; cPP—central pulse pressure; cfPWV—carotid–femoral pulse wave velocity; ¶—this measurement was obtained during the clinical pulse wave analysis assessment
To the best of our knowledge, this is the first study to investigate domestic volatile organic compounds (VOCs) exposure with subclinical measures of CV health related to central vascular function
Summary
Exposure to environmental factors such as air pollution have previously been suggested to amplify the effect of traditional risk factors, such as blood pressure and smoking [1,2], on cardiovascular risk [3,4]. Whilst aortic wall stiffness increases with advancing age, in the presence of CVD risk factors such as elevated blood glucose and obesity [9,10,11,12], increases have been observed in relatively healthy individuals with a low burden of traditional vascular disease risk factors, suggesting a background effect of aging per se or possibly reflecting exposure to unknown or nontraditional risk factors [13] such as air pollution. None have reported on exposures to VOCs in residential homes where individuals spend greater than two-thirds of their daily time [16,17,18] and where sources of VOCs are numerous and abundant The aim of this cross-sectional study was to investigate associations between indoor residential exposure to VOCs and subclinical measures and correlates of central arterial stiffness in a population of healthy, middle-aged men and women living in Perth, Western. This study did not attempt to determine air exchange rates (ventilation) or characterize emission sources of indoor VOCs
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