Air pollution linked to higher risk of COVID-19 in young adults

Date:
April 20, 2022
Source:
Karolinska Institutet
Summary:
Residential exposure to ambient air pollutants is linked to an
elevated risk of SARS-CoV-2 infection, an observational study of
young adults in Stockholm, Sweden shows.



FULL STORY ========================================================================== Residential exposure to ambient air pollutants is linked to an elevated
risk of SARS-CoV-2 infection, an observational study of young adults
in Stockholm, Sweden shows. The study was conducted by researchers from Karolinska Institutet and is published inJAMA Network Open.


========================================================================== Since pollutants in outdoor air can increase the risk of respiratory
infections such as influenza and SARS, the COVID-19 pandemic aroused
fears that they could also contribute to the risk of SARS-CoV-2
infection. Studies have also shown that areas of poor air quality have
more cases of COVID-19.

Researchers at Karolinska Institutet have now studied this more closely
by examining the link between estimated exposure to air pollutants at
home addresses and positive PCR tests for SARS-CoV-2 in young adults in Stockholm, Sweden.

The results show that exposure to certain traffic-related air pollutants
is associated with a greater likelihood of testing positive.

"Our results add to the growing body of evidence that air pollution has a
part to play in COVID-19 and support the potential benefit of improving
air quality," says Olena Gruzieva, associate professor at the Institute
of Environmental Medicine at Karolinska Institutet and one of the study's
last authors.

The study draws on the population-based BAMSE project, which has regularly followed over 4,000 participants in Stockholm from birth. By linking
these data to the national communicable disease registry (SmiNet),
the researchers identified 425 individuals who had tested positive for SARS-CoV-2 (PCR test) between May 2020 and the end of March 2021. The
average age of the participants was 26, and 54 per cent were women.



========================================================================== Daily outdoor concentrations of different air pollutants at the
participants' home addresses were estimated using dispersion models. The pollutants were particles with a diameter less than 10 micrometers (PM10)
and 2.5 micrometers (PM2.5), black carbon and nitrogen oxides.

The researchers studied the associations between infection and exposure
to air pollutants in the days before the positive PCR test, on the day
of the test and on later control days. Each participant served as his
or her own control on these different occasions.

The results show associations between infection risk and exposure to
PM10 and PM2.5 two days before a positive test and exposure to black
carbon one day before. They found no link between the risk of infection
and nitrogen oxides.

The increase in risk was of an order of magnitude around seven per cent
per particle exposure increase equivalent to the interquartile range,
i.e. between the first quartile (25%) and the third quartile (75%)
of the estimated particle concentrations.

"Seven per cent doesn't sound much, but given that everyone is more
or less exposed to air pollutants, the association may be of great
significance to public health," says Erik Mele'n, professor of paediatrics
at the Department of Clinical Science and Education, So"dersjukhuset, Karolinska Institutet, BAMSE project leader and the study's joint
last author.

The observed association was not influenced by gender, smoking, overweight
or asthma.

The researchers note that the results might be affected by the willingness
to take a PCR test and the fact that many of the young adults were
asymptomatic or had only mild symptoms following infection. The study
can also not rule out the possibility that time-varying confounding
factors also influenced the results.

The researchers are now examining the link between air pollutants and
post- COVID symptoms in young adults.

The first author of the paper is Zhebin Yu, postdoctoral researcher in
Olena Gruzieva's group. The study was financed by Forte, the Swedish
Research Council, the Swedish Heart-Lung Foundation and Region
Stockholm. The authors have reported no conflicts of interest.


========================================================================== Story Source: Materials provided by Karolinska_Institutet. Note: Content
may be edited for style and length.


========================================================================== Journal Reference:
1. Zhebin Yu, Tom Bellander, Anna Bergstro"m, Joakim Dillner, Kristina
Eneroth, Magnuz Engardt, Antonios Georgelis, Inger Kull, Petter
Ljungman, Go"ran Pershagen, Massimo Stafoggia, Erik Mele'n, Olena
Gruzieva, Catarina Almqvist, Niklas Andersson, Natalia Ballardini,
Anna Bergstro"m, Sophia Bjo"rkander, Petter Brodin, Anna Castel,
Sandra Ekstro"m, Antonios Georgelis, Lennart Hammarstro"m, Qiang
Pan-Hammarstro"m, Jenny Hallberg, Christer Jansson, Maura Kere,
Inger Kull, Andre' Lauber, Alexandra Lo"vquist, Erik Mele'n,
Jenny Mjo"sberg, Ida Mogensen, Lena Palmberg, Go"ran Pershagen,
Niclas Roxhed, Jochen Schwenk. Association of Short- term Air
Pollution Exposure With SARS-CoV-2 Infection Among Young Adults
in Sweden. JAMA Network Open, 2022; 5 (4): e228109 DOI: 10.1001/
jamanetworkopen.2022.8109 ==========================================================================

Link to news story: https://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2022/04/220420112958.htm

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