Air Pollution and the Risk of Dementia: The Rotterdam Study

Tosca O.E. de Crom, Bigina N.R. Ginos, Anna Oudin, M. Kamran Ikram, Trudy Voortman, M. Arfan Ikram*

*Corresponding author for this work

Research output: Contribution to journalArticleAcademicpeer-review

1 Citation (Scopus)
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Abstract

BACKGROUND: Exposure to air pollution has been suggested to increase the risk of dementia, but studies on this link often lack a detailed screening for dementia and data on important confounders. OBJECTIVE: To determine the association of exposure to air pollution with the risk of dementia and cognitive decline in the population-based Rotterdam Study. METHODS: Between 2009 and 2010, we determined air pollutant concentrations at participants residential addresses using land use regression models. Determined air pollutants include particulate matter <10μm (PM10) and <2.5μm (PM2.5), a proxy of elemental carbon (PM2.5 absorbance), nitrogen oxide (NOx), and nitrogen dioxide (NO2). As the individual air pollutant levels were highly correlated (r = 0.71-0.98), we computed a general marker covering all air pollutants based on a principal component analysis. We followed participants up for dementia until 2018 and determined cognitive performance during two subsequent examination rounds. Using Cox and linear mixed models, we related air pollution to dementia and cognitive decline. RESULTS: Of the 7,511 non-demented participants at baseline, 545 developed dementia during a median follow-up of 7 years. The general marker of all air pollutants was not associated with the risk of dementia (hazard ratio [95% confidence interval]: 1.04 [0.95-1.15]), neither were the individual air pollutants. Also, the general marker of all air pollutants or the individual air pollutant levels were not associated with cognitive decline. CONCLUSION: In this study, we found no clear evidence for an association between exposure to air pollution and the risk of dementia or cognitive decline.

Original languageEnglish
Pages (from-to)603-613
Number of pages11
JournalJournal of Alzheimer's disease : JAD
Volume91
Issue number2
DOIs
Publication statusPublished - 17 Jan 2023

Bibliographical note

Funding Information:
This study was performed as part of the Netherlands Consortium of Dementia Cohorts (NCDC), which receives funding in the context of Deltaplan Dementie from ZonMW Memorabel (projectnr 73305095005)

Funding Information:
The Rotterdam Study is supported by Erasmus Medical Centre and Erasmus University, Rotterdam, Netherlands Organization for the Health Research and Development (ZonMw), the Research Institute for Diseases in the Elderly (RIDE), the Ministry of Education, Culture and Science, the Ministry for Health, Welfare and Sports, the European Commission (DG XII), and the Municipality of Rotterdam.

Funding Information:
This study was supported by the ADAIR project (grant #JPND2019-466-037). This is an EU Joint Programme - Neurodegenerative Disease Research (JPND) project. The project is supported through the following funding organizations under the aegis of JPND - www.jpnd.eu (Ministry of Education, Youth and Sports, Czech Republic; Academy of Finland, Finland; National Research, Development and Innovation Office, Hungary; Ministry of Education, Universities and Research, Italy; ZonMW – The Netherlands Organisation for Health Research and Development, The Netherlands; Swedish Research Council, Sweden). This study was performed as part of the Netherlands Consortium of Dementia Cohorts (NCDC), which receives funding in the context of Deltaplan Dementie from ZonMW Memorabel (projectnr 73305095005) and Alzheimer Nederland. Further funding was also obtained from the Stichting Erasmus Trustfonds, grant number 97030.2021.101.430/057/RB. This study was also partly funded through the Netherlands Organisation for Health Research and Development (ZonMW) grant number 733051107.

Publisher Copyright:
© 2023-The authors. Published by IOS Press.

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