Associations of PM10 with sleep and sleep-disordered breathing in adults from seven U.S. urban areas.
BACKGROUND
Sleep-disordered breathing (SDB), the recurrent episodic disruption of normal breathing during sleep, affects as much as 17% of U.S. adults, and may be more prevalent in poor urban environments. SDB and air pollution have been linked to increased cardiovascular diseases and mortality, but the association between pollution and SDB is poorly understood.


OBJECTIVE
We used data from the Sleep Heart Health Study (SHHS), a U.S. multicenter cohort study assessing cardiovascular and other consequences of SDB, to examine whether particulate air matter less than 10 μm in aerodynamic diameter (PM(10)) was associated with SDB among persons 39 years of age and older.


METHODS
Using baseline data from SHHS urban sites, outcomes included the following: the respiratory disturbance index (RDI); percentage of sleep time at less than 90% O(2) saturation; and sleep efficiency, measured by overnight in-home polysomnography. We applied a fixed-effect model containing a city effect, controlling for potential predictors. In all models we included both the 365-day moving averages of PM(10) and temperature (long-term effects) and the differences between the daily measures of these two predictors and their 365-day average (short-term effects).


RESULTS
In summer, increases in RDI or percentage of sleep time at less than 90% O(2) saturation, and decreases in sleep efficiency, were all associated with increases in short-term variation in PM(10). Over all seasons, we found that increased RDI was associated with an 11.5% (95% confidence interval: 1.96, 22.01) increase per interquartile range increase (25.5°F) in temperature.


CONCLUSIONS
Reduction in air pollution exposure may decrease the severity of SDB and nocturnal hypoxemia and may improve cardiac risk.
Department of Environmental Health, Exposure Epidemiology and Risk Program, Harvard School of Public Health, 401 Park Drive, Landmark Center, Suite 415, PO Box 15698, Boston, MA 02215, USA. azanobet@hsph.harvard.edu
Antonella
A
Zanobetti
Susan
S
Redline
Joel
J
Schwartz
Dennis
D
Rosen
Sanjay
S
Patel
George T
GT
O'Connor
Michael
M
Lebowitz
Brent A
BA
Coull
Diane R
DR
Gold
D000328:Adult; D000368:Aged; D000369:Aged, 80 and over; D000393:Air Pollutants / Q000633:toxicity*; D000397:Air Pollution / Q000009:adverse effects*; D002947:Cities; D015331:Cohort Studies; D005260:Female; D006801:Humans; D008297:Male; D008875:Middle Aged; D015337:Multicenter Studies as Topic; D010316:Particle Size; D052638:Particulate Matter / Q000633:toxicity*; D017286:Polysomnography; D012621:Seasons; D012720:Severity of Illness Index; D012890:Sleep / Q000502:physiology*; D012891:Sleep Apnea Syndromes / Q000453:epidemiology / Q000209:etiology*; D013696:Temperature; D014481:United States / Q000453:epidemiology; D014504:Urban Health
D000393:Air Pollutants; D052638:Particulate Matter