Cleaner Air for Lower Cardiometabolic Risk: protocol for a double-blind, randomized, sham-controlled trial of HEPA...

Air pollution is a leading driver of cardiovascular disease with a growing body of literature implicating this in worse glucose homeostasis. Increases in fine particulate matter air pollution (PM_2.5) are associated with increased blood glucose and hemoglobin A1c across the glycemic spectrum from normoglycemia to prediabetes to all forms of diabetes. Despite strong evidence for positive associations of PM_2.5 with dysglycemia, it remains unknown if reducing air pollution exposure through air filtration can affect improvements in glucose. This study aims to test the hypothesis that short-term, in-home air pollution reduction using high efficiency particulate air (HEPA) filtration will improve blood sugar in adults with prediabetes.

This trial is a randomized, double-blind, sham-controlled trial of the effects of lowering air pollution exposure using HEPA filtration on cardiometabolic health in adults with prediabetes living in the New York City area. Participants will be randomly assigned to use bedroom air cleaners, or sham air cleaners, while measuring PM_2.5 continuously for 1 month. The primary outcomes will be continuous glucose monitoring metrics measured before and after HEPA air filtration. Exploratory outcomes will include insulin resistance measures, serum biomarkers and transcriptomics measured before and after HEPA intervention. We will quantify effects of HEPA filtration with models using treatment arm (true versus sham filtration) as the independent variable. Secondary analyses will model continuous measures of PM_2.5 as the independent variable.

This study has undergone peer review; and the work was supported by Grant 2023-0214 from the Doris Duke Foundation, who had no other role in study design or implementation. The study was registered in ClinicalTrials.gov (NCT05994937) prior to recruitment.