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Sudden cardiac death in women: are major roads a risk factor?

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For over two decades epidemiological studies have supported a link between cardiovascular disease and air pollution – triggering heart attacks, strokes and arrhythmia. The relative risk to the general population was exemplified by the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) who reported that in 2009 there were 35 million people living within 300m of a major road in the US.

In a study published in Circulation, researchers from Brigham and Women’s Hospital and Harvard Medical School in Boston (MA), showed that there is an increased incidence of sudden cardiac death (SCD) in women living near to major roads.

Using data from 107,000 women (mostly white with an average age of 60) from the Nurses’ Health Study of 1986-2012, the researchers looked at the incidence of SCD, after adjusting for other factors, in relation to roadway proximity. Using participants living at least 500m away a major road as their control group, the authors found that the risk of SCD increased by 6% with every 100m closer a participant lived to a major road. This trend concluded with a 38% elevation of SCD risk in participants living within 50m of a major road.

Commenting on their study, lead author Dr Jaime Hart said: “on a population level, living near a major roadway was as important a risk factor as smoking, diet and obesity.”

With SCD established as the leading cause of death for women in the US (1 in 4 deaths in 2009), this is a significant finding warranting further attention and research. Indeed the authors next aim “to determine what specific exposures, such as air pollution, are driving the association between heart disease and major roadway proximity.”

General advice on air pollution and the heart is available on the EPA website: http://www.epa.gov/greenheart/

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The post Sudden cardiac death in women: are major roads a risk factor? appeared first on Science Nutshell.


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