University of Michigan conducted a new study suggesting that air pollution affects the weight of midlife women.
Midlife Women Prone to Obesity When Exposed to Air Pollution
According to the research, published in Diabetes Care, women in their late 40s and early 50s exposed long-term to air pollution saw increases in their body size and composition measures. Xin Wang, epidemiology research investigator at the U-M School of Public Health and the study's first author, said that the air pollution measured contains higher levels of fine particles, nitrogen dioxide and ozone.
The researchers use the data from the Study of Women's Health Across the Nation including 1,654 white, Black, Chinese,and Japanese women. These womenwere tracked from 2000 to 2008 with a baseline median age of nearly 50 years.
Annual air pollution exposures were determined by linking residential addresses to hybrid estimates of air pollutant concentrations. The researchers looked at the relationships between the participants'body size measurement and composition and the pollutants. They were interested in learning whether these relationships varied according to physical activity.
Effects of Air Pollution in Body Composition
Exposure to air pollution in middle-aged women was linked to lower lean mass, higher body fat, and higher fat-to-body ratios. Body weight, for instance, increased by 2.6 pounds, or 4.5%, more body fat.
Researchers studied how air pollution and exercise affected body composition.The study found that high levels of physical activity were an efficient approach to reduce and counteract exposure to air pollution. TThe research was based on the duration, frequency, and felt physical intensity of over 60 exercises.
Because the study only looked at midlife women, Wang claims that its findings cannot be extended to men or women in other age groups.
Previous Study on the Relation Between Obesity and Air Pollution
Numerous research have sought to understand the complex and various causes of obesity over the past few decades, and this is not the first to examine the connection to air pollution.
In 2019, researchers at the University of California, Santa Barbara published a study in IZA Institute of Labor Economics evaluating the causal effect of air pollution on body weight. The study based its data from 13,226 adults in China between 1989 and 2011,
The historical context of this time period makes it distinct. China's economic boom during the course of the study's years played a part in the 70% increase in fine particulate matter concentration. China's average BMI grew by 11% throughout this time, and the percentages of overweight and obesity rose from 8.57% to 32.83% and 0.48%, respectively.
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Childhood Obesity and Air Pollution
The International Journal of Obesity also discussed the potential impacts of ambient air pollution on the emergence of childhood obesity, although it pointed out that available data are currently limited.
The Lung Care Foundation and Pulmocare Research and Education in India's investigation produced the most alarming findings. The results found that while 39.8% of the children in Dehli were obese or overweight. Delhi is known as one of the world's most polluted cities. On the other hand, there were only 16.4% of children in Kottayam and Mysuru affected as the cities have significantly better air quality.
Meanwhile, in a report in 2015, the researcher found the risk can come from inside as well as outside the home such as parental smoking. The researcher showed that this factor led to faster weight gain among Californian children and teens.
Similar indicators of increased insulin resistance, hypertension, and waist circumference were observed in a group of over 4,000 adults living in areas with high levels of pollution in a Swiss study conducted across the Atlantic.
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