Chinanews.com, Beijing, May 5 (Reporter Sun Zifa) Springer Nature's professional academic journal "Nature-Aging" recently published a health research paper saying that short-term exposure (up to 28 days) to high levels of air Pollution is related to cognitive dysfunction in older men.
The study also showed that the negative effects of this short-term air pollution exposure were relatively minor among the subjects taking common prescription pain relievers.
The paper pointed out that cognitive decline is common in the elderly, and environmental factors will accelerate this decline, such as exposure to fine particulate matter (PM2.5) in the air that does not exceed 2.5 microns in size.
Nevertheless, there is still a lack of research on the impact of short-term air pollution exposure on the cognitive function of the elderly.
Previous studies have also analyzed non-steroidal anti-inflammatory drugs (NSAIDs, a class of drugs that relieve pain and inflammation, such as aspirin) as a potential treatment for cognitive dysfunction and dementia.
However, it has never been studied before whether the drug can be used as an intervention for the effects of air pollution on cognitive health.
The corresponding author of the paper, Peking University Gao Xu, and his colleagues studied 954 elderly white men (average age 70) in the Greater Boston area who participated in the standardized aging study of American veterans.
In multiple visits, the researchers used general cognitive function and Mini Mental State Examination (MMSE) scores to evaluate the cognitive performance of these people, and then compared these data with their local air PM2.5 levels on the day of each visit. And compare the average PM2.5 level 1-4 weeks before the visit.
The researchers found that the increase in PM2.5 levels up to 28 days before the evaluation was related to the decline in the participants' overall cognitive function scores, even if the PM2.5 levels were lower than generally considered dangerous levels.
They also found that subjects taking prescription non-steroidal anti-inflammatory drugs were less adversely affected by short-term air pollution exposure.
The author of the paper concluded that interdisciplinary studies based on larger cohorts and more detailed information on the use of non-steroidal anti-inflammatory drugs are still needed to verify the relationship between air pollution exposure and cognitive function, and that non-steroidal Inflammation drugs may improve this.
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