Ambient Air Pollution Exposures and Risk of Parkinson's Disease (P3.351)

Objective: We investigated the associations of long-term residential concentrations of ambient particulate matter (PM) less than 10µm in diameter (PM10), less than 2.5µm in diameter (PM2.5), and nitrogen dioxide (NO2) in relation to Parkinson’s disease (PD) risk. Background: Few epidemiologic studies have evaluated the effects of air pollution on risk of PD. Methods: Our case-control analysis included 1,556 self-reported physician-diagnosed PD cases identified between 1995-2006 and 3,313 age-, sex-, and race-matched controls. We geocoded home addresses reported in 1995-1996 and estimated the average ambient concentrations of PM10, PM2.5 and NO2 using a national fine-scale geo-statistical model incorporating roadway information and other geographic covariates. Air pollutant exposures were analyzed both as quintiles and continuous variables, adjusting for matching variables and potential confounders. Results: We observed no statistically significant overall association between PM or NO2 exposures and PD risk. However, in pre-planned subgroup analyses, a higher risk of PD was associated with higher exposure to PM10 (ORQ5vsQ1=1.65; 95[percnt] CI: 1.11, 2.45; p-trend=0.02) among women, and to PM2.5 (ORQ5vsQ1=1.29; 95[percnt] CI: 0.94, 1.76; p-trend=0.04) among never smokers. In post-hoc analyses among female never smokers, both PM2.5 (OR for Q5vsQ1=1.79; 95[percnt] CI: 1.01, 3.17; p-trend=0.05) and PM10 (OR for Q5vsQ1=2.34; 95[percnt] CI: 1.29, 4.26; p-trend=0.01) showed positive associations with PD risk. Analyses based on continuous exposure variables generally showed similar but non-significant associations. Conclusions: Our findings suggest that exposures to PM2.5 and PM10 may increase PD risk in female never smokers. Further research is needed to confirm this finding and investigate underlying mechanisms. Disclosure: Dr. Liu has nothing to disclose. Dr. Young has nothing to disclose. Dr. Chen has nothing to disclose. Dr. Kaufman has nothing to disclose. Dr. Chen has nothing to disclose.