LIVING NEAR MAJOR ROADS MAY INCREASE SUDDEN CARDIAC DEATH IN WOMEN
Living close to a
major road may increase women's risk of dying from sudden cardiac death,
according to new research in the American Heart Association journal Circulation.
"It's important
for healthcare providers to recognize that environmental exposures may be
under-appreciated risk factors for diseases such as sudden cardiac death and
fatal coronary heart disease," said Jaime E. Hart, Sc.D., study lead
author and an instructor in medicine at Brigham and Women's Hospital and
Harvard Medical School in Boston, Massachusetts. "On a population level,
living near a major roadway was as important a risk factor as smoking, diet or
obesity."
While researchers
previously found a modest increase in coronary heart disease risk among people
who live near major roadways, the new study may be the first to examine the
impact of roadway proximity to the risk of sudden cardiac death. Researchers
note that roadway proximity could be a marker for exposure to air pollution.
The researchers
studied data from 107,130 women (predominately white, average age 60) who were
part of the Nurses' Health Study from 1986-2012. Calculating residential
distance to roadways and after adjusting for a large number of other factors
including age, race, calendar time, cigarette smoking, physical activity, and
diet, researchers found:
In 523 cases of sudden cardiac death, living within 50 meters
(164 feet) of a major road increased the risk of sudden cardiac death by 38
percent, compared to living at least 500 meters (.3 miles) away.
Each 100 meters (328 feet) closer to roadways was associated
with a 6 percent increased risk for sudden cardiac death.
In the 1,159 cases of fatal coronary heart disease, risk
increased 24 percent.
The public's exposure
to major roadways is comparable to major sudden cardiac death risk factors,
researchers said.
Researchers weren't
able to measure all possible risk factors associated with living near a major
road. They also said more research is needed among men and among women of
different ages, races and income levels because nearly all participants were middle-age
to elderly, white and of middle- to upper-socioeconomic class.
The Environmental
Protection Agency estimated that 35 million people in the United States lived
within 300 meters (984 feet) of a major road in 2009, and a growing number
lived in close proximity to major roads worldwide.
"Regardless of
where you live, adopting heart-healthy habits, such as maintaining a healthy
weight, being physically active, eating nutritious foods, quitting smoking, and
managing stress, can help decrease your risk of heart and blood vessel
disease," said Hart, who is also an instructor at the Harvard School of
Public Health.
"Our next step is
to try to determine what specific exposures, such as air pollution, are driving
the association between heart disease and major roadway proximity."
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