A new study shows, along with high blood pressure, diabetes and smoking, environmental factors such as air pollution are very predictive of people’s chances of dying, especially from a heart attack and stroke.
Led by researchers at the NYU Grossman School of Medicine and the Icahn School of Medicine in Mount Sinai, the study showed that exposure to above-average levels of outdoor air pollution increased the risk of death by 20 % and the risk of death from cardiovascular disease by 17%. .
The use of wood or kerosene stoves, not properly ventilated through a fireplace, to cook food or heat the home also increased the overall risk of death (by 23 percent and 9 percent) and the cardiovascular death risk (by 36 percent and 19 percent). Living away from specialized medical clinics and close to busy roads also increases the risk of death.
Published online June 24 in the journal PLOS ONE, the results come from personal and environmental health data collected from 50,045 rural people, mostly poor, living in the northeastern Golestan region of Iran. All study participants were over 40 years old and agreed that their health should be monitored during annual visits with researchers dating back to 2004.
The researchers say their latest research not only identifies the environmental factors that pose the greatest risk to heart and overall health, but also adds much-needed scientific evidence from people in low- and middle-income countries. Traditional research on environmental risk factors, the researchers note, has favored urban populations in high-income countries with much greater access to modern health services.
Compared to those with easier access to specialized medical services, those living farther away from clinics with catheterization labs capable of unblocking clogged arteries, for example, had a 1% higher risk of death for every 10 kilometers (6.2 miles) away. In Golestan, most people live more than 50 miles (80 kilometers) away from these modern facilities.
The results of the study also showed that one-third of study participants living within 500 meters (1,640 feet) of a main road had a 13% higher risk of death.
Our study highlights the role of key environmental factors in indoor / outdoor air pollution, access to modern health services and proximity to noisy and polluted roads in all causes of death and deaths from cardiovascular disease in particular “.
Rajesh Vedanthan, MD, MPH., Lead author of the study and cardiologist
“Our findings help broaden the risk profile of the disease beyond age and traditional personal risk factors,” says Dr. Vedanthan, an associate professor in the population health and medicine departments at NYU Langone Health. .
“These results illustrate a new opportunity for health policy makers to reduce the burden of disease on their communities by mitigating the impact of environmental risk factors such as air pollution on cardiovascular health,” he says the lead author of the study Michael Hadley, MD, a fellow in cardiology and entrants. assistant professor of medicine at Mount Sinai.
In contrast, the study showed that other environmental factors included in the analysis (low neighborhood income levels, increased population density, and excessive exposure to night light) were not independent predictors of death risk, despite that previous research in predominantly urban settings suggests otherwise.
For the research, the researchers analyzed the data collected through December 2018. They then created a predictive model on the overall risk of death and the risk of death from cardiovascular disease.
The research team plans to continue the analysis and hopes to apply the predictive model to other countries with the aim of refining its predictive capacity. They say their new tool could serve as a guide to assessing the effectiveness of environmental, lifestyle and personal health changes to reduce mortality rates around the world.
According to the World Health Organization, a quarter of all deaths worldwide are now due to environmental factors, such as poor air and water quality, poor sanitation and exposure to toxic chemicals.
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Magazine reference:
Hadley, MB, et al. (2022) Spatial environmental factors predict cardiovascular and all-cause mortality: results of the SPACE study. PLOS ONE. doi.org/10.1371/journal.pone.0269650.