Sjögren's disease & overlap diseases
Exposure to air pollution as an environmental determinant of how Sjögren's disease is expressed at diagnosis
Authors' conclusion
For the first time, we suggest that pollution levels could influence how SjD appears at diagnosis in a large international cohort of patients.
Study context
- Population
- Patients with SjD at diagnosis, large international cohort
- Exposure
- Patients in countries with the highest/worst air pollutant exposure vs other countries
- Outcome
- Dry eyes, dry mouth and ESSDAI score at diagnosis by country-level air pollutant exposure
- Follow-up
- Diagnosis
Methodological detailsinternational cohort, country-level OECD air pollution indexes (1990-2021), chi-square tests of independence
- International cohort
- Country-level OECD air pollution indexes (1990-2021)
- Chi-square tests of independence
Main finding
As reported in the abstract
Dry eye prevalence at diagnosis
- Dry eyes vs each air pollutant: all but one variable p<0.0001
- p-values <0.0001
- Highest NO/SO exposure vs other countries, increase in dry eye prevalence (percentage points)
- 4.61
- CO, increase (points)
- 3.59
- Non-methane, increase (points)
- 3.32
- PM2.5, increase (points)
- 3.30
- PM1.0, increase (points)
- 1.60
Observational data: associations, not effects.
Further findings
| Outcome | P value |
|---|---|
| Mean global ESSDAI score, worst NO/SO, CO and PM2.5 levels · diagnosisHigher mean global ESSDAI score | all p-values <0.0001 |
Mean global ESSDAI score, worst NO/SO, CO and PM2.5 levels · diagnosis
- Higher mean global ESSDAI score in countries with the worst NO/SO, CO and PM2.5 levels than in lower-risk nations
Moderate/severe systemic activity (DAS) · diagnosis
- Higher proportion with moderate/severe systemic activity in countries with worse NO/SO, CO and PM2.5 exposure
Parts of this Brief are withheld: the automatic checks could not confirm them against the abstract.
Original publication
Exposure to air pollution as an environmental determinant of how Sjögren's disease is expressed at diagnosis. Clin Exp Rheumatol. Published 2 November 2023. doi:10.
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