Traffic-Related Air Pollution as a Risk Factor for Dementia : No Clear Modifying Effects of APOEɛ4 in the Betula Cohort

It is widely known that the apolipoprotein E (APOE) ɛ4 allele imposes a higher risk for Alzheimer's disease (AD). Recent evidence suggests that exposure to air pollution is also a risk factor for AD, and results from a few studies indicate that the effect of air pollution on cognitive function...

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Bibliographic Details
Published in:Journal of Alzheimer's Disease
Main Authors: Oudin, Anna, Andersson, John, Sundström, Anna, Nordin Adolfsson, Annelie, Oudin Åström, Daniel, Adolfsson, Rolf, Forsberg, Bertil, Nordin, Maria
Format: Article in Journal/Newspaper
Language:English
Published: IOS Press 2019
Subjects:
Public Health
Global Health
Social Medicine and Epidemiology
Geriatrics
Northern Sweden
Online Access:https://lup.lub.lu.se/record/1ebbf5c4-e627-4e13-93ad-138ace8358f0
https://doi.org/10.3233/JAD-181037
Description
Summary:It is widely known that the apolipoprotein E (APOE) ɛ4 allele imposes a higher risk for Alzheimer's disease (AD). Recent evidence suggests that exposure to air pollution is also a risk factor for AD, and results from a few studies indicate that the effect of air pollution on cognitive function and dementia is stronger in APOEɛ4 carriers than in non-carriers. Air pollution and interaction with APOEɛ4 on AD risk thus merits further attention. We studied dementia incidence over a 15-year period from the longitudinal Betula study in Northern Sweden. As a marker for long-term exposure to traffic-related air pollution, we used modelled annual mean nitrogen oxide levels at the residential address of the participants at start of follow-up. Nitrogen oxide correlate well with fine particulate air pollution levels in the study area. We had full data on air pollution, incidence of AD and vascular dementia (VaD), APOEɛ4 carrier status, and relevant confounding factors for 1,567 participants. As expected, air pollution was rather clearly associated with dementia incidence. However, there was no evidence for a modifying effect by APOEɛ4 on the association (p-value for interaction > 0.30 for both total dementia (AD+VaD) and AD). The results from this study do not imply that adverse effects of air pollution on dementia incidence is limited to, or stronger in, APOEɛ4 carriers than in the total population.

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