Long-term impacts of ambient fine particulate matter exposure on overweight or obesity in Chinese adults: The China-PAR project.

Although emerging researches have linked ambient fine particulate matter (PM 2.5) to obesity, evidence from high-polluted regions is still lacking. We thus assessed the long-term impacts of PM 2.5 on body mass index (BMI) and the risk of the prevalence of overweight/obesity (BMI≥25 kg/m2), by incorporating the well-established Prediction for Atherosclerotic Cardiovascular Disease Risk in China (China-PAR) project comprising 77,609 participants with satellite-based PM 2.5 estimates at 1-km spatial resolution. The average of long-term PM 2.5 level was 70.4 μg/m3, with the range of 32.1–94.2 μg/m3. Each 10 μg/m3 increment of PM 2.5 was associated with 0.421 kg/m2 (95% confidence interval [CI]: 0.402, 0.439) and 13.5% (95% CI: 12.8%, 14.3%) increased BMI and overweight/obesity risk, respectively. Moreover, compared with the lowest quartile of PM 2.5 (≤57.5 μg/m3), the relative risk of the prevalence of overweight/obesity from the highest quartile (>85.9 μg/m3) was 1.611 (95% CI: 1.566, 1.657). The exposure-response curve suggested a non-linear relationship between PM 2.5 exposure and overweight/obesity. Besides, the association was modified by age, diabetes mellitus, hypertension and dyslipidemia status. Our study provides the evidence for the adverse impacts of long-term PM 2.5 on BMI and overweight/obesity in China, and the findings are important for policy development on air quality, especially in severely polluted areas. • Ambient fine particulate matter (PM2.5) was significantly associated with higher BMI levels and risk of overweight/obesity. • We provided the first evidence of exposure-response curve for PM2.5 with overweight or obesity. • The associations of PM2.5 with overweight or obesity varied across subgroups of age and health conditions. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]