Background: Inflammatory effects of ambient particulate matter (PM) air pollution exposures may underlie PM-related increases in cardiovascular disease risk and mortality, although evidence of PM-associated leukocytosis is inconsistent and largely based on small, cross-sectional, and/or unrepresentative study populations.
Objectives: Our objective was to estimate PM-leukocyte associations among U.S. women and men in the Women's Health Initiative and Atherosclerosis Risk in Communities study ().
Methods: We based the PM-leukocyte estimations on up to four study visits per participant, at which peripheral blood leukocytes and geocoded address-specific concentrations of , , and in diameter (, , and , respectively) were available. We multiply imputed missing data using chained equations and estimated PM-leukocyte count associations over daily to yearly PM exposure averaging periods using center-specific, linear, mixed, longitudinal models weighted for attrition and adjusted for sociodemographic, behavioral, meteorological, and geographic covariates. In a subset of participants with available data (), we also estimated PM-leukocyte proportion associations in compositional data analyses.
Results: We found a (95% confidence interval: , 33) higher leukocyte count, a 1.2% (0.6%, 1.8%) higher granulocyte proportion, and a (, ) lower T-cell proportion per increase in 1-month mean . However, shorter-duration exposures were inversely and only modestly associated with leukocyte count.
Discussion: The -leukocyte estimates, albeit imprecise, suggest that among racially, ethnically, and environmentally diverse U.S. populations, sustained, ambient exposure to fine PM may induce subclinical, but epidemiologically important, inflammatory effects. https://doi.org/10.1289/EHP5360.