Effects of Leisure‐Time and Transport‐Related Physical Activities on the Risk of Incident and Recurrent Myocardial Infarction and Interaction With Traffic‐Related Air Pollution: A Cohort Study

Abstract

BackgroundPhysical activity enhances the uptake of air pollutants, possibly reducing its beneficial effects. We examined the effects of leisure‐time and transport‐related physical activities on the risk of myocardial infarction (MI), and whether potential benefits on MI are reduced by exposure to traffic‐related air pollution.Methods and ResultsA group of 57 053 participants (50–65 years of age) from the Danish Diet, Cancer, and Health cohort reported physical activity at baseline (1993–1997) and were linked to registry data on hospital contacts and out‐of‐hospital deaths caused by MI, until December 2015. Nitrogen dioxide levels were estimated at participants’ baseline residences. We used Cox regressions to associate participation in sports, cycling, walking, and gardening with incident and recurrent MI, and tested for interaction by nitrogen dioxide. Of 50 635 participants without MI at baseline, 2936 developed incident MI, and of 1233 participants with MI before baseline, 324 had recurring MI during follow‐up. Mean nitrogen dioxide concentration was 18.7 μg/m3 at baseline (1993–1997). We found inverse statistically significant associations between participation in sports (hazard ratio; 95% confidence interval: 0.85; 0.79–0.92), cycling (0.91; 0.84–0.98), gardening (0.87; 0.80–0.95), and incident MI, while the association with walking was statistically nonsignificant (0.95; 0.83–1.08). Recurrent MI was statistically nonsignificantly inversely associated with cycling (0.80; 0.63–1.02), walking (0.82, 0.57–1.16), and gardening (0.91; 0.71–1.18), and positively with sports (1.06; 0.83–1.35). There was no effect modification of the associations between physical activity and MI by nitrogen dioxide.ConclusionsBenefits of physical activity on both the incidence and the recurrence of MI are not reduced by exposure to high levels of air pollution.

Interaction between Long-Term Exposure to Fine Particulate Matter and Physical Activity, and Risk of Cardiovascular Disease and Overall Mortality in U.S. Women

“…2015 ). In a second study of 57,053 participants in the same cohort, no interaction was observed between long-term exposure and physical activity in association with incident and recurrent MI ( Kubesch et al. 2018 ).…”

“…Environmental Health Perspectives 127012-7 128(12) December 2020 physical activity in association with incident and recurrent MI (Kubesch et al 2018). Among 359,067 Taiwanese adults, no interaction was observed between long-term PM 2:5 exposure and physical activity in relation to systemic inflammation, a biomarker of CVD risk (Zhang et al 2018).…”

“…Two studies have examined this interaction for long-term nitrogen dioxide ( ) exposure and physical activity in association with mortality and MI risk and did not observe interactions ( Andersen et al. 2015 ; Kubesch et al. 2018 ).…”

The need for clean air: The way air pollution and climate change affect allergic rhinitis and asthma

“…The avoidance of individual motorized transportation constitutes a simple and basic approach. Exercising outdoors is also recommended, as its benefits are expected to exceed the negative impacts of exposure to outdoor allergens and pollutants, at least in most European cities . However, limiting the time spent outdoors during the pollen season (for pollen‐allergic patients) and during high traffic hours or warm days is a reasonable approach.…”

MIRKB: a myocardial infarction risk knowledge base

“…It was reported that high physical activity (PA) is a protective factor for 1-year readmission due to non-cardiovascular disease in patients with MI (17). PA is also a protective factor for the incidence of MI (18), although another study indicated that PA is not significantly associated with the risk of acute MI (19). Family history of premature coronary artery disease plays an important role in the development of MI (10).…”