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Adverse effects of short-term personal exposure to fine particulate matter on the lung function of patients with chronic obstructive pulmonary disease and asthma: a longitudinal panel study in Bei**g, China

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Abstract

Fine particulate matter (PM2.5) is an important environmental factor affecting human health. However, most studies on PM2.5 and health have used data from fixed monitoring sites to assess PM2.5 exposure, which may have introduced misleading information on the exposure–response relationship. We aimed to assess the effect of short-term personal PM2.5 exposure on lung function in patients with chronic obstructive pulmonary disease (COPD) and asthma. To achieve this, we conducted a longitudinal panel study among 37 COPD patients and 45 asthma patients from Bei**g, China. The COPD group and the asthma group completed 148 and 180 lung function tests, respectively. We found that in COPD patients, for every 10-μg/m3 increase in PM2.5 exposure at lag2, the FEV1, FVC and DLco decreased by −0.014 L (95% CI −0.025, −0.003), −0.025 L (95% CI −0.050, −0.003) and −0.089 mmol/min/kPa (95% CI −0.156, −0.023), respectively. There was also a decrease of −0.023 L/s (95% CI −0.042, −0.003) and −0.017 L/s (95% CI −0.032, −0.002) in MMEF at lag3 and lag03, respectively. In the asthma group, every 10-μg/m3 increase in PM2.5 exposure led to a reduction of −0.012 L (95% CI −0.023, −0.001), −0.042 L (95% CI −0.081, −0.003) and −0.061 L/s (95% CI −0.116, −0.004) in the FEV1, FVC and PEF at lag3, respectively. Our findings suggest that PM2.5 exposure may primarily affect both airway function and lung diffusion function in COPD patients, and airway function in asthma patients.

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Acknowledgements

We would like to thank all the study participants from the China–Japan Friendship Hospital. We thank Yong Li for performing the pulmonary function tests on the patients. The authors would like to thank all the study participants for their dedicated participation.

Funding

This work was supported by the National Key Research and Development Project of China (grant number 2016YFC0206502), the National Nature Science Foundation of China (grant numbers 81970043, 91643115) and the CAMS Innovation Fund for Medical Sciences (CIFMS) (grant number 2018-I2M-1-001).

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Peking University China–Japan Friendship School of Clinical Medicine, No 2, East Yinghua Road, Chaoyang District, Bei**g, 100029, China

    Ruirui Duan, Ting Yang & Chen Wang

  2. Department of Pulmonary and Critical Care Medicine, China–Japan Friendship Hospital, Bei**g, China

    Hongtao Niu, Tao Yu, Ke Huang, Chen Chen, Ting Yang & Chen Wang

  3. National Respiratory Center, Bei**g, China

    Hongtao Niu, Ke Huang, Han Cui, Ting Yang & Chen Wang

  4. Chinese Academy of Medical Sciences & Peking Union Medical College, Bei**g, China

    Ting Yang & Chen Wang

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  1. Ruirui Duan
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Contributions

T.Y. and C.W. proposed this study and revised the manuscript. R.D., N.H. and T.Y. completed participants’ recruitment and follow-up. R.D. wrote the original draft. H.N., T.Y. and K.H. helped perform the analysis with constructive discussions. H.C. and C.C. collected samples and did quality control. All authors revised the report and approved the final version before submission.

Corresponding authors

Correspondence to Ting Yang or Chen Wang.

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The study protocol was approved by the Ethics Committee of the China–Japan Friendship Hospital (2017-19). Written informed consent was obtained from each participant.

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Duan, R., Niu, H., Yu, T. et al. Adverse effects of short-term personal exposure to fine particulate matter on the lung function of patients with chronic obstructive pulmonary disease and asthma: a longitudinal panel study in Bei**g, China. Environ Sci Pollut Res 28, 47463–47473 (2021). https://doi.org/10.1007/s11356-021-13811-y

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