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Published on: December 2, 2014
Association between air pollutants and arterial stiffness in the general population: A systematic review and
María José Rodríguez-Sánchez1, Alicia Saz-Lara2, Iván Cavero-Redondo2
1CarVasCare Research Group, Faculty of Nursing, University of Castilla la Mancha, Cuenca, Spain; Hospital Virgen de la Luz, Cuenca, Spain.
Objectives:
The aim of this systematic review and meta-analysis was to assess whether there is an association between air pollutants and arterial stiffness in the general population.
Study Design:
Systematic review and meta-analysis.
Methods:
The PubMed, Web of Science, Cochrane Library and Scopus databases were searched from inception to December 15, 2024. This study was registered in PROSPERO (CRD4202424598608). The DerSimonian and Laird method was used to calculate pooled risk ratio (RR) estimates and their 95 % confidence intervals (CIs) to assess the associations between air pollutants (CO, NO2, O3, PM10, PM2.5 and SO2) and arterial stiffness in the general population.
Results:
A total of 13 observational studies involving 257,784 adults were included. The pooled RR for the association with arterial stiffness was 1.13 (95 % CIs: 1.01, 1.26) for O3, 1.23 (95 % CIs: 1.03, 1.48) for PM10, 1.23 (95 % CIs: 1.04, 1.45) for PM2.5, and 1.25 (95 % CIs: 1.06, 1.49) for SO2. No significant results were obtained for CO or NO2.
Conclusions:
Our findings showed that exposure to certain air pollutants, such as O3, PM10, PM2.5 and SO2, was associated with increased arterial stiffness in the general population, although future research is needed to explore this association in more detail.
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