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Urine 2-hydroxyphenanthrene is associated with current asthma: evidence from NHANES 2007–2012

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Abstract

Objective

The current study aims to explore the effects of nine urine monohydroxy PAH metabolites (OHPAH) including 1-hydroxynaphthalene (1-OHNAP), 2-hydroxynaphthalene (2-OHNAP), 3-hydroxyfluorene (3-OHFLU), 9-hydroxyfluorene (9-OHFLU), 1-hydroxyphenanthrene (1-OHPHE), 2-hydroxyphenanthrene (2-OHPHE), 3-hydroxyphenanthrene (3-OHPHE), and 1-hydroxypyrene (1-OHPYR) on current asthma in people in the United States using a variety of statistical techniques.

Methods

A cross-sectional examination of a subsample of 3804 adults aged ≥20 from the National Health and Nutrition Examination Survey (NHANES) was conducted between 2007 and 2012. To investigate the relationship between urine OHPAHs levels and current asthma, multivariate logistic regression, Bayesian kernel machine regression (BKMR), and quantile g-computation (qgcomp) were utilized.

Results

In the multivariate logistic regression model, after controlling for confounders, urine 2-OHPHE was associated with current asthma in both male (AOR = 7.17, 95% CI: 1.28–40.08) and female (AOR = 2.91, 95% CI: 1.06–8.01) smokers. In the qgcomp analysis, 2-OHPHE (39.5%), 1-OHNAP (33.1%), and 2-OHNAP (22.5%) were the major positive contributors to the risk of current asthma (OR = 2.29, 95% CI: 0.99, 5.25), and in female smokers, 9-OHFLU (25.8%), 2-OHFLU (21.5%), and 2-OHPHE (15.1%) were the major positive contributors (OR = 2.19, 95% CI: 1.06, 4.47). The results of the BKMR model basically agreed with qgcomp analysis.

Conclusion

Our results demonstrate a strong association of urine 2-OHPHE with current asthma, and further longitudinal studies are needed to understand the precise relationship between PAH exposure and current asthma risk.

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Data availability

The datasets analyzed during the current study are available in the NHANES repository provided by the CDC to the public, [https://wwwn.cdc.gov/nchs/nhanes/ContinuousNhanes/Default.aspx?BeginYear=2015] (CDC/National Center for Health Statistics 2020).

References

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Acknowledgements

The authors thank the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention’s (CDC) National Center for Health Statistics (NCHS) for sharing the data. The authors thank Prof. Min-Sun Kim and Dr. Hai Duc Nguyen from Department of Pharmacy, College of Pharmacy and Research Institute of Life and Pharmaceutical Sciences, Sunchon National University, Sunchon, Jeonnam, Republic of Korea, Prof. Lina Mu and Dr. Zhongzheng Niu from School of Public Health and Health Professions, The State University of New York at Buffalo, Buffalo, NY, USA, as well as Qing Su for instructions and advice on statistical analysis.

Funding

This research received no external funding.

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Authors and Affiliations

Authors

Contributions

Lingyi Lu: formal analysis, methodology, writing—original draft, writing—review and editing. Tingfeng Mao: methodology, formal analysis, writing—review and editing. Rui Xu: methodology, writing—review and editing. Lanxia Liu: formal analysis. Jiefeng Qian: writing—review and editing. Kai Yang: writing—review and editing. Anjie Yuan: data curation, methodology. Xinyue Wang: writing—review and editing. Rong Ni: formal analysis, writing—original draft, writing—review and editing.

Corresponding author

Correspondence to Rong Ni.

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Conflict of interest

The authors declare no competing interests.

Ethical approval and informed consent

Ethics for the collection of the original NHANES data and consent for participation were addressed by the NHANES Ethics Review Board (ERB): see https://www.cdc.gov/nchs/nhanes/irba98.htm. All participants provided written informed consent prior to participation.

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The manuscript is approved by all authors for publication.

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Lu, L., Mao, T., Xu, R. et al. Urine 2-hydroxyphenanthrene is associated with current asthma: evidence from NHANES 2007–2012. Int Arch Occup Environ Health 96, 1123–1136 (2023). https://doi.org/10.1007/s00420-023-01994-5

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