Abstract

While there is limited evidence regarding neurodegenerative diseases and psychiatric disorders, ambient air pollution is a known risk factor for premature mortality from chronic cardiovascular, respiratory, and metabolic diseases. In seven European cohorts, we investigated the connection between dementia, psychiatric disorders, and suicide mortality after prolonged exposure to air pollution. The multi-institutional project titled “Effects of Low-Level Air Pollution: We combined data from seven European cohorts from six nations for the “A Study in Europe” (ELAPSE). Using Europewide hybrid land-use regression models, annual mean levels of eight PM2.5 components—fine particulate matter (PM2.5), nitrogen dioxide (NO2), black carbon (BC), ozone were estimated based on residential addresses. To find out how dementia, psychiatric disorders, and suicide mortality were linked to air pollution, we used stratified Cox proportional hazard models. During a mean follow-up of 19.7 years, 900 of the 271,720 participants died from dementia, 241 from psychiatric disorders, and 164 from suicide. and there is no link to dementia mortality. None of the three mortality outcomes were positively correlated with any of the eight PM2.5 components or O3. Psychiatric disorders and suicide may result from prolonged exposure to NO2, PM2.5, and BC

Keywords: Psychiatric disorders; Chronic cardiovascular; Dementia; Metabolic diseases