Neurology: Relationship between long-term exposure to air pollution and cognitive decline in older adults

In a recent study published in Neurology, an authoritative journal of neurology, researchers looked at the relationship between long-term exposure to environmental air pollution and cognitive decline in urban older peopledata from two prospective residents in the Manhattan area of upstate New York City: the Hetts Woodwood Community Aging Project (WHICAP) in Washington and the North Manhattan Study (NOMAS)Participants in both queues underwent comprehensive neuropsychological tests during recruitment and follow-upIn each queue, the researchers used a reverse-probability-weighted linear mixing model to assess the horizontal and vertical correlation between the levels of the average residential environmental air pollution markers (nitrogen dioxide (NO2), fine particulate matter (PM2.5) and inhalable particulate matter (PM10) in the previous year of recruitment into the group and the overall and domain-specific cognitive indicatorsin 5330 WHICAP participants, the increase in NO2 was associated with a decrease of 0.22 SDs (95% confidence interval of -0.30 to -0.14) and 0.06 SDs (95% confidence intervals of -0.08 to -0.04) when enrolled in the groupPM2.5 and PM10 are similar to the results in different functional cognitive areasThe researchers found no evidence in NOMAS that there was a link between air pollution and cognitive functionshows that WHICAP participants living in areas with higher levels of environmental air pollutants had lower cognitive scores when they entered the group, and their cognitive decline was faster over timeNOMAS is a smaller queue with fewer repeated measurements, and the researchers found no statistically significant correlationThese results provide evidence of the adverse effects of air pollution on cognitive degeneration and brain health