Exposure to ambient air pollution has been linked with adverse health outcomes of the circulatory and nervous systems. Given that falls are closely related to circulatory and nervous health, we hypothesize that air pollution may adversely affect fall-related injury. We employed Wave 1 data from 36,662 participants aged ≥50 years in WHO's Study on Global AGEing and Adult Health in six low- and middle-income countries. Ambient annual concentration of PM_2.5 was estimated using satellite data. A three-level logistic regression model was applied to examine the long-term association between ambient PM_2.5 and the prevalence of fall-related injury, and associated disease burden, as well as the potential effect modification of consumption of fruit and vegetables. Ambient PM_2.5 was found to be significantly associated with the risk of fall-related injury. Each 10 μg/m³ increase corresponded to 18% (OR = 1.18, 95% CI: 1.09, 1.28) increase in fall-related injury after adjusting for various covariates. The association was relatively stronger among participants with lower consumption of fruit (OR = 1.22, 95% CI: 1.12, 1.33) than higher consumption (OR = 1.06, 95% CI: 0.92, 1.23), and among those with lower vegetable consumption (OR = 1.18, 95% CI: 1.08, 1.28) than higher consumption (OR = 1.08, 95% CI: 0.91, 1.27). Our study suggests that ambient PM_2.5 may be one risk factor for fall-related injury and that higher consumption of fruit and vegetables could alleviate this effect.

暴露于环境空气污染已与循环系统和神经系统的不良健康后果联系在一起。鉴于跌倒与血液循环和神经健康密切相关，我们假设空气污染可能会对与跌倒相关的伤害产生不利影响。在世卫组织六个中低收入国家的全球老龄化和成人健康研究中，我们采用了第一波数据，这些数据来自36662名年龄≥50岁的参与者。使用卫星数据估算了PM _2.5的环境年浓度。应用三级逻辑回归模型检查环境PM _2.5与跌倒相关伤害的患病率以及相关疾病负担之间的长期关联性，以及水果和蔬菜消费量的潜在影响。环境PM _2.5被发现与跌倒相关的伤害风险显着相关。调整各种协变量后，与跌倒相关的伤害每增加10μg/ m ^3，对应于摔倒相关的伤害增加18％（OR = 1.18，95％CI：1.09，1.28）。水果消费量较低（OR = 1.22，95％CI：1.12，1.33）的参与者之间的关联相对强于水果消费量较高（OR = 1.06，95％CI：0.92，1.23）的参与者和蔬菜消费量较低的参与者（ OR = 1.18，95％CI：1.08，1.28）比更高的消耗量（OR = 1.08，95％CI：0.91，1.27）。我们的研究表明，环境PM _2.5可能是与摔倒相关的伤害的危险因素之一，而更多食用水果和蔬菜可以减轻这种影响。