Green space modified the association between air pollutants and hypertension in China

ABSTRACT

Evidence regarding the combined effects of green space and air pollutants on hypertension remains limited and complex. This study aims to investigate the varying effects of greenness under different air pollution levels in China, using data from the wave 2018 China Health and Retirement Longitudinal Study (CHARLS) involving 17 468 adults (aged ≥ 45 years). As a result, the prevalence rate of hypertension was 42.04%. Logistic regression analyses revealed the positive associations between air pollution concentrations at the city level and prevalent hypertension and the negative associations between NDVI and prevalent hypertension, all of which were more prominent in the populations of the eastern and rural regions. Notably, the negative effect of green space was greater at the lowest quartiles of each air pollutant (OR for PM_2.5 quartiles = 0.724, 0.792, 0.740, and 0.931)  . Improving air quality and greenness could potentially reduce hypertension risk, and minimizing air pollution might optimize the protective effects of greenness.

KEYWORDS:

• Greenness
• PM_2.5
• PM₁₀
• NO₂
• hypertension

Acknowledgements

The authors thank Jing Wang for her help in directing the suggestions for improving the article, all referees for their help in improving this paper, and Peking University for the open data resources.

Disclosure statement

No potential conflict of interest was reported by the author(s).

Availability of data and materials

The datasets are available in the CHARLS repository, http://charls.pku.edu.cn.

Competing interests

The authors have no relevant financial or non-financial interests to disclose.

Ethics approval and consent to participate

This is a retrospective cross-sectional study based on the CHARLS database, from which the patient’s information was hidden before the study. There is no need for the patient’s informed consent and no ethical conflict. The original CHARLS was approved by the Ethical Review Committee of Peking University (IRB00001052–11015), and all participants provided written informed consent. All procedures in this study were in accordance with the Helsinki Declaration.

Supplementary material

Supplemental data for this article can be accessed online at https://doi.org/10.1080/09603123.2023.2300047

Correction Statement

This article has been republished with minor changes. These changes do not impact the academic content of the article.

Additional information

Funding

The authors declare that no funds, grants, or other support were received during the preparation of this manuscript.