Long-term exposure to ambient hydrocarbons increases dementia risk in people aged 50 years and above in Taiwan.

PMID: 

Curr Alzheimer Res. 2020 Jan 2. Epub 2020 Jan 2. PMID: 31902365

Abstract Title: 

Long-Term Exposure to Ambient Hydrocarbons Increases Dementia Risk in People Aged 50 years and above in Taiwan.

Abstract: 

BACKGROUND: Alzheimer's disease, the most common cause of dementia among the elderly, is a progressive and irreversible neurodegenerative disease. Exposure to air pollutants is known to have adverse effects on human health, however, little is known about hydrocarbons in the air that can trigger a dementia event.OBJECTIVE: We aimed to investigate whether long-term exposure to airborne hydrocarbons increases the risk of developing dementia.METHOD: The present cohort study included 178,085 people aged 50 years and older in Taiwan. Cox proportional hazards regression analysis was used to fit the multiple pollutant models for two targeted pollutants, including total hydrocarbons and non-methane hydrocarbons, and estimated the risk of dementia.RESULTS: Before controlling for multiple pollutants, hazard ratios with 95% confidence intervals for the overall population were 7.63 (7.28-7.99, p

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