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Air pollution, traffic noise, mental health, and cognitive development: A multi-exposure longitudinal study of London adolescents in the SCAMP cohort.

Thompson, R; Stewart, G; Vu, T; Jephcote, C; Lim, S; Barratt, B; Smith, RB; Karim, YB; Mussa, A; Mudway, I; et al. Thompson, R; Stewart, G; Vu, T; Jephcote, C; Lim, S; Barratt, B; Smith, RB; Karim, YB; Mussa, A; Mudway, I; Fisher, HL; Dumontheil, I; Thomas, MSC; Gulliver, J; Beevers, S; Kelly, FJ; Toledano, MB (2024) Air pollution, traffic noise, mental health, and cognitive development: A multi-exposure longitudinal study of London adolescents in the SCAMP cohort. Environ Int, 191. p. 108963. ISSN 1873-6750 https://doi.org/10.1016/j.envint.2024.108963
SGUL Authors: Gulliver, John

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Abstract

BACKGROUND: There is increasing evidence that air pollution and noise may have detrimental psychological impacts, but there are few studies evaluating adolescents, ground-level ozone exposure, multi-exposure models, or metrics beyond outdoor residential exposure. This study aimed to address these gaps. METHODS: Annual air pollution and traffic noise exposure at home and school were modelled for adolescents in the Greater London SCAMP cohort (N=7555). Indoor, outdoor and hybrid environments were modelled for air pollution. Cognitive and mental health measures were self-completed at two timepoints (baseline aged 11-12 and follow-up aged 13-15). Associations were modelled using multi-level multivariate linear or ordinal logistic regression. RESULTS: This is the first study to investigate ground-level ozone exposure in relation to adolescent executive functioning, finding that a 1 interquartile range increase in outdoor ozone corresponded to -0.06 (p < 0.001) z-score between baseline and follow-up, 38 % less improvement than average (median development + 0.16). Exposure to nitrogen dioxide (NO2), 24-hour traffic noise, and particulate matter < 10 µg/m3 (PM10) were also significantly associated with slower executive functioning development when adjusting for ozone. In two-pollutant models, particulate matter and ozone were associated with increased externalising problems. Daytime and evening noise were associated with higher anxiety symptoms, and 24-hour noise with worse speech-in-noise perception (auditory processing). Adjusting for air pollutants, 24-hour noise was also associated with higher anxiety symptoms and slower fluid intelligence development. CONCLUSIONS: Ozone's potentially detrimental effects on adolescent cognition have been overlooked in the literature. Our findings also suggest harmful impacts of other air pollutants and noise on mental health. Further research should attempt to replicate these findings and use mechanistic enquiry to enhance causal inference. Policy makers should carefully consider how to manage the public health impacts of ozone, as efforts to reduce other air pollutants such as NO2 can increase ozone levels, as will the progression of climate change.

Item Type: Article
Additional Information: © 2024 The Authors. Published by Elsevier Ltd. This is an open access article under the CC BY license (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/).
Keywords: Adolescence, Air pollution, Cognition, Mental health, Public health, Traffic noise, Humans, Adolescent, London, Air Pollution, Male, Longitudinal Studies, Female, Mental Health, Cognition, Environmental Exposure, Ozone, Particulate Matter, Child, Air Pollutants, Noise, Transportation, Cohort Studies, Nitrogen Dioxide, Noise, Humans, Nitrogen Dioxide, Ozone, Air Pollutants, Cohort Studies, Longitudinal Studies, Mental Health, Cognition, Noise, Air Pollution, Environmental Exposure, Noise, Transportation, Adolescent, Child, London, Female, Male, Particulate Matter, Environmental Sciences
SGUL Research Institute / Research Centre: Academic Structure > Population Health Research Institute (INPH)
Journal or Publication Title: Environ Int
ISSN: 1873-6750
Language: eng
Publisher License: Creative Commons: Attribution 4.0
Projects:
Project IDFunderFunder ID
MR/R00322X/1Medical Research Councilhttp://dx.doi.org/10.13039/501100000265
PubMed ID: 39241332
Go to PubMed abstract
URI: https://openaccess.sgul.ac.uk/id/eprint/117082
Publisher's version: https://doi.org/10.1016/j.envint.2024.108963

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