Background

Air pollution has been associated with various health outcomes. Its effect on hand-grip strength, a measurement of the construct of muscle strength and health status, remains largely unknown.

Methods

We used the survey data from 31,209 adults ≥ 50 years of age within Wave 1 of the Study on Global AGEing and Adult Health in six low- and middle-income countries. The outdoor concentration of fine particulate matter pollution (PM_2.5) was estimated using satellite data. Domestic fuel type and ventilation were used as indicators of indoor air pollution. We used multilevel linear regression models to examine the association between indoor and outdoor air pollution and hand-grip strength, as well as the potential effect modifiers.

Results

We found inverse associations between both indoor and outdoor air pollution and hand-grip strength. Each 10 μg/m³ increase in 3 years’ averaged concentrations of outdoor PM_2.5 corresponded to 0.70 kg (95% CI: −1.26, −0.14) lower hand-grip strength; and compared with electricity/liquid/gas fuel users, those using solid fuels had lower hand-grip strength (β = −1.25, 95% CI: −1.74, −0.75). However, we did not observe a statistically significant association between ventilation and hand-grip strength. We further observed that urban residents and those having a higher education level had a higher association between ambient PM_2.5 and hand-grip strength, and men, young participants, smokers, rural participants, and those with lower household income had higher associations between indoor air pollution and hand-grip strength.

Conclusion

This study suggests that both indoor and outdoor air pollution might be important risk factors of poorer health and functional status as indicated by hand-grip strength.

中文翻译：

---

六个中低收入国家的成年人室内和室外空气污染与握力的关系

背景

空气污染与各种健康后果有关。它对握力的影响（衡量肌肉力量和健康状况的指标）仍然未知。

方法

我们在六个中低收入国家的“全球老龄化与成人健康研究”的第一波研究中使用了31209名≥50岁的成年人的调查数据。使用卫星数据估算了室外细颗粒物污染的浓度（PM _2.5）。使用家用燃料类型和通风作为室内空气污染的指标。我们使用多级线性回归模型来检查室内和室外空气污染与手握强度之间的关联，以及潜在的影响修正因子。

结果

我们发现室内和室外空气污染与握力之间呈反比关系。3年室外PM _2.5的平均浓度每增加10μg/ m ³，则手握强度降低0.70千克（95％CI：-1.26，-0.14）；与使用电力/液体/气体燃料的用户相比，使用固体燃料的用户的握力更低（β= -1.25，95％CI：-1.74，-0.75）。但是，我们没有观察到通气和握力之间的统计学显着关联。我们进一步观察到，城市居民和文化程度较高的人之间的环境PM _2.5关联性更高。 和握力，男性，年轻参与者，吸烟者，农村参与者以及家庭收入较低的人，室内空气污染与握力之间的关联性更高。

结论

这项研究表明，室内和室外空气污染可能是健康和功能状况较差的重要危险因素，如手握力所示。