1. Air pollution and serious bleeding events in high-risk older adults.
- Author
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Fayyad R, Josey K, Gandhi P, Rua M, Visaria A, Bates B, Setoguchi S, and Nethery RC
- Subjects
- Humans, Aged, Male, Female, Retrospective Studies, Aged, 80 and over, United States epidemiology, Hemorrhage chemically induced, Hemorrhage epidemiology, Air Pollutants adverse effects, Air Pollutants analysis, Environmental Exposure adverse effects, Hospitalization statistics & numerical data, Gastrointestinal Hemorrhage chemically induced, Gastrointestinal Hemorrhage epidemiology, Particulate Matter adverse effects, Particulate Matter analysis, Air Pollution adverse effects, Anticoagulants adverse effects
- Abstract
Importance: Despite biological plausibility, very few epidemiologic studies have investigated the risks of clinically significant bleeding events due to particulate air pollution., Objective: To measure the independent and synergistic effects of PM
2.5 exposure and anticoagulant use on serious bleeding events., Design: Retrospective cohort study (2008-2016)., Setting: Nationwide Medicare population., Participants: A 50% random sample of Medicare Part D-eligible Fee-for-Service beneficiaries at high risk for cardiovascular and thromboembolic events., Exposures: Fine particulate matter (PM2.5 ) and anticoagulant drugs (apixaban, dabigatran, edoxaban, rivaroxaban, or warfarin)., Main Outcomes and Measures: The outcomes were acute hospitalizations for gastrointestinal bleeding, intracranial bleeding, or epistaxis. Hazard ratios and 95% CIs for PM2.5 exposure were estimated by fitting inverse probability weighted marginal structural Cox proportional hazards models. The relative excess risk due to interaction was used to assess additive-scale interaction between PM2.5 exposure and anticoagulant use., Results: The study cohort included 1.86 million high-risk older adults (mean age 77, 60% male, 87% White, 8% Black, 30% anticoagulant users, mean PM2.5 exposure 8.81 μg/m3 ). A 10 μg/m3 increase in PM2.5 was associated with a 48% (95% CI: 45%-52%), 58% (95% CI: 49%-68%) and 55% (95% CI: 37%-76%) increased risk of gastrointestinal bleeding, intracranial bleeding, and epistaxis, respectively. Significant additive interaction between PM2.5 exposure and anticoagulant use was observed for gastrointestinal and intracranial bleeding., Conclusions: Among older adults at high risk for cardiovascular and thromboembolic events, increasing PM2.5 exposure was significantly associated with increased risk of gastrointestinal bleeding, intracranial bleeding, and epistaxis. In addition, PM2.5 exposure and anticoagulant use may act together to increase risks of severe gastrointestinal and intracranial bleeding. Thus, clinicians may recommend that high-risk individuals limit their outdoor air pollution exposure during periods of increased PM2.5 concentrations. Our findings may inform environmental policies to protect the health of vulnerable populations., Competing Interests: Declaration of competing interest The authors declare the following financial interests/personal relationships which may be considered as potential competing interests: Rachel C. Nethery reports financial support was provided by National Institutes of Health. If there are other authors, they declare that they have no known competing financial interests or personal relationships that could have appeared to influence the work reported in this paper., (Copyright © 2024 Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved.)- Published
- 2024
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