1. Effects of long-term indoor air purification intervention on cardiovascular health in elderly: a parallel, double-blinded randomized controlled trial in Hong Kong.
- Author
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Xia X, Chan KH, Kwok T, Wu S, Man CL, and Ho KF
- Subjects
- Aged, Humans, Hong Kong, Particulate Matter analysis, Randomized Controlled Trials as Topic, Air Pollution, Indoor prevention & control, Air Pollution, Indoor analysis, Cardiovascular System, Cardiovascular Diseases prevention & control, Air Filters, Air Pollutants analysis, Air Pollution analysis
- Abstract
Ambient fine particulate matter (PM
2.5 ) is a leading environmental risk factor globally, and over half of the associated disease burden are caused by cardiovascular disease. Numerous randomized controlled trials (RCT) have investigated the short-term cardiovascular benefits of indoor air purifiers (IAPs), but major knowledge gaps remain on their longer-term benefits. In this 1-year, randomized, double-blinded, parallel controlled trial of 47 elderly (ntrue-purification = 24; nsham-purification = 23) aged ≥70 years, true-purification reduced household PM2.5 levels by 28% and maintained lower exposure throughout the year compared to the sham-purification group. After 12 months of intervention, a significant reduction of diastolic blood pressure was found in the true-purification versus sham-purification group (-4.62 [95% CI: -7.28, -1.96] mmHg) compared to baseline measurement prior to the intervention, whereas systolic blood pressure showed directionally consistent but statistically non-significant effect (-2.49 [95% CI: -9.25, 4.28] mmHg). Qualitatively similar patterns of associations were observed for pulse pressure (-2.30 [95% CI: -6.57, 1.96] mmHg) and carotid intima-media thickness (-10.0% [95% CI: -24.8%, 4.7%]), but these were not statistically significant. Overall, we found suggestive evidence of cardiovascular benefits of long-term IAPs use, particularly on diastolic blood pressure. Evidence on other longer-term cardiovascular traits is less clear. Further trials with larger sample sizes and long-term follow-up are needed across diverse populations to evaluate the cardiovascular benefits of IAPs., Competing Interests: Declaration of competing interest The authors declare the following financial interests/personal relationships which may be considered as potential competing interests:Ka Hung Chan reports financial support was provided by BHF Centre of Research Excellence. 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 The Authors. Published by Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved.)- Published
- 2024
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