Association between exposures to air pollution and biomarkers of cardiovascular disease in Northern Taiwan

Exposure to air pollution has been associated with increased cardiovascular disease (CVD). Biological mechanism of oxidative stress and systemic inflammation link this association. Heart rate (HR), Systolic Blood Pressure (SBP), Diastolic blood pressure (DBP), White Blood Cell (WBC), Red Blood Cell (RBC), hematocrit (HCT), and hemoglobin (HB) are some biomarkers of oxidative stress and systemic inflammation related to CVD. However, study about effects of air pollution on biomarkers of CVD in specific group remains very limited. We conducted this study to measure the association between ambient air pollution and biomarkers of CVD in adult people in the urban area of northern Taiwan. We conducted this study using a cross-sectional design. We extracted biomarkers of CVD data from the daily hospital admissions of pulmonary department of Shuang-Ho Hospital in New Taipei City from 2014 to 2015. We averaged the 24 h concentrations of PM₁₀, PM_2.5, NO₂, and SO₂, and 8 h concentrations of O₃ from the database of Taiwan Air Quality Monitoring Network. We analyzed the data using multiple linear regression. We used lag up to 5 previous days in the analysis to measure the delay effect of the air pollution. We controlled meteorological variables (temperature and relative humidity) and individual characteristics (sex, age, smoking status, and alcohol consumption) in the analysis. We use the beta coefficients (β) and 95% CI to express the association. We considered P-value < 0.05 as statistically significant. We found statistically significant positive associations between air pollutants and HR, SBP, and RBC concentrations and statistically significant negative associations between air pollutants and HCT concentrations. On the other hand, we found no significant association between air pollutants and DBP, WBC, and HB concentration.