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Residential proximity to major roadway and progression in physical disability in older adults in China

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Abstract

Evidence of a connection between living near major roadway and adverse health outcome has come to light. However, little is known about the effect of residential traffic exposure on aging-related physical disability and whether this effect can be modified. We used data derived from Chinese Longitudinal Healthy Longevity Surveys in 2018, with a total of 15,771 participants aged ≥ 65. Residential proximity to major roadway was used as a surrogate for traffic-related air pollution and physical function was measured using basic and instrumental activities of daily living. Logistic regression models were adopted for the analyses. Compared with those living > 300 m from major road, participants living within 200 m had higher risk of poorer physical functioning. The peak odds ratio was observed in severe disability caused by 101–200 m distance (OR = 1.34, 95% CI: 1.08, 1.66). And this association got stronger with longer duration of living close to major road. In dichotomized analyses using 200 m as a cutoff point, the effect associated with living close to major road was greater in male and current smoker. Specially, poor physical function appears earlier in female, but less severe than that in male. The result emphasizes the adverse effect of residential proximity to major roadways to aging-related declines in health—especially for basic living ability. This association was more pronounced in male and current smokers, which cannot be reversed by lowering the indoor air pollution.

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Acknowledgements

We thank all the staff in the survey design and data collection and acknowledge the Chinese longitudinal healthy longevity surveys research team for collecting high-quality data and sharing it publicly.

Availability of data and materials

The datasets used during the current study are available from the corresponding author on reasonable request.

Funding

The research was funded by the National Natural Science Foundation of China (No. 81573262 and No. 81773549). The funders had no role in design and conduct of the study; collection, management, analysis, and interpretation of the data; preparation, review, and approval of the manuscript; or the decision to submit the manuscript for publication.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Department of Epidemiology and Biostatistics, School of Public Health, Tongji Medical College, Huazhong University of Science and Technology, 13 Hangkong Rd, Wuhan, 430030, Hubei, China

    Jing Hu, Wenqian Chen, Lei Li, Yu Zhang, Hongwei Jiang & Ping Yin

  2. Clinical Research Center, Tongji Hospital, Tongji Medical College, Huazhong University of Science and Technology, 1095 Jiefang Ave., Wuhan, 430030, Hubei, China

    Wenhua Liu

Authors
  1. Jing Hu
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  2. Wenqian Chen
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  3. Lei Li
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  4. Yu Zhang
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  5. Hongwei Jiang
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  6. Wenhua Liu
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  7. Ping Yin
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Contributions

JH: conceptualization, formal analysis, writing - original draft, writing - review and editing. WQC: visualization, validation. LL: data curation. YZ: data curation. HWJ: funding acquisition. WHL: validation, writing - review and editing. PY: funding acquisition, supervision. WHL and PY is the guarantor. All listed authors met authorship criteria and that no others meeting the criteria have been omitted.

Corresponding authors

Correspondence to Wenhua Liu or Ping Yin.

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Ethics approval and consent to participate

Ethical approval for this study was obtained from the Biomedical Ethics Committee of Peking University, Beijing, China (IRB00001052-13074), and written consent forms were available from all participants or their proxy respondents.

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Not applicable.

Competing interests

The authors declare no competing interests.

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Responsible Editor: Lotfi Aleya

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Hu, J., Chen, W., Li, L. et al. Residential proximity to major roadway and progression in physical disability in older adults in China. Environ Sci Pollut Res 29, 36616–36625 (2022). https://doi.org/10.1007/s11356-021-18203-w

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