Premature CV death from air pollution declines while years living with disability rises
Click Here to Manage Email Alerts
Key takeaways:
- Lower rates of CV death due to air pollution may augur more years living with disability between 1990 and 2019.
- Rates of CV death and years living with disability and life lost were higher among men vs. women.
An analysis of the Global Burden of Disease study showed that despite decreasing rates of CV death attributable to air pollution, the number of years living with disability increased from 1990 to 2019, especially among men.
Using the Institute for Health Metrics and Evaluation Global Burden of Disease study, Farshad Farzadfar, MD, MPH, DSc, professor of medicine in the noncommunicable diseases research center of the Endocrinology and Metabolism Research Institute at Tehran University of Medical Sciences in Iran, and colleagues evaluated changes in disability-adjusted life-years, years of life lost, years lived with disability and deaths attributed to particulate matter (PM) air pollution and its subgroups from 1990 to 2019.
Image: Adobe Stock
“We focused on examining the burden globally because particulate matter pollution is a widespread environmental risk factor that affects all populations worldwide, and understanding its impact on cardiovascular health can help guide public health interventions and policy decisions,” Farzadfar said in a press release.
Premature death due to air pollution
The researchers observed that despite a 36.7% decrease in age-standardized death rates attributable to PM, all-age DALYs increased approximately 31%, reaching 8.9 million in 2019.
The largest contributor to the increased DALY rate was years of life lost, totaling an estimated 8.2 million years (95% uncertainty interval, 7.3-9.2).
“The declines in deaths may be considered positive news, as they indicate improvements in health care, air pollution control measures and access to treatment. However, the increase in disability-adjusted life years suggests that although fewer people were dying from cardiovascular disease, more people were living with disability,” Farzadfar said in the release.
Deaths, DALYs and years of life lost were higher among men than women, despite fewer years lived with disability in 2019, according to the study.
The researchers reported an approximately 8.1% increase in the age-standardized rate of DALYs attributable to ambient PM; however, household air pollution from solid fuels decreased by 65.4% from 1990 to 2019.
“The reason for the decrease in the burden of household air pollution from solid fuels might be better access and use of cleaner fuels, such as refined biomass, ethanol, liquefied petroleum gas, solar and electricity. Moreover, structural changes, such as improved cookstoves and built-in stoves, chimney hoods and better ventilation, might be effective in reducing pollution exposure to solid fuels. Finally, the effects of educational and behavioral interventions should be considered,” Farzadfar said in the release. “The shifting pattern from household air pollution due to solid fuels to outdoor, ambient PM pollution has important public policy implications.”
Impact by sociodemographic region
Moreover, residents of high sociodemographic index regions had the lowest number of years of life lost due to CVD attributed to PM pollution and the highest number of years lived with disability, whereas the opposite was true for residents of low socioeconomic index regions, according to the study.
“Until now, only the association of PM pollution with ischemic heart disease and stroke has been demonstrated in a large number of studies,” Farzadfar said in the release. “The [Institute For Health Metrics and Evaluation] may include other CVDs in the future. Moreover, ischemic heart disease and stroke contribute to a significant majority of CVDs, and our estimates, despite having limitations, may be used as a good estimate of PM pollution burden on CVDs.”
Please see the study for full details on the associations between the global rates of premature death from CVD and ambient PM pollution.
Reference:
- Particulate air pollution a growing risk for premature CVD death and disability worldwide. https://newsroom.heart.org/news/particulate-air-pollution-a-growing-risk-for-premature-cvd-death-and-disability-worldwide. Published Aug. 9, 2023. Accessed Aug. 9, 2023.
Collapse
Read more about
Click Here to Manage Email Alerts