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Association of ambient air pollution and age at menopause: a population-based cohort study in Tehran, Iran

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Abstract

Menopause is influenced by various factors including age, lifestyle, and environmental factors. Whether long-term exposure to ambient air pollutants is associated with a decrease in menopausal age requires further study. In this study, we investigated the association between ambient air pollutants with decreasing menopausal age in women participating in the Tehran Lipid and Glucose Study (TLGS). The study population were reproductive aged women who participated in TLGS. The annual average concentrations of pollutants including NO, NO2, NOX, PM10, PM2.5, SO2, benzene, toluene, ethylbenzene, p-xylene, m-xylene, o-xylene (BTEX), and total BTEX for each person were estimated based on the residence addresses, the date, and duration of their residence at each address using previously developed land use regression (LUR) models. The multivariable Cox proportional hazards regression model was used to estimate the hazard ratio (HR) with 95% confidence intervals (CI) between the tertiles of study air pollutants and age at menopause, after adjustment for enter age, BMI, smoking, physical activity, menarche age, education, marital status, and parity (number of deliveries). Additionally, the associations between menopausal age and the air pollutants exposures were estimated using multivariable linear regression. There was no statistically significant association between the hazard of menopause event and tertiles of exposure to air pollutants by Cox proportional hazard models. The multiple linear regression model revealed that despite observing a negative association between air pollutants with age at menopause, this association was not statistically significant. We found associations between air pollution and reduction in menopausal age but that were not statistically significant. Further research with larger sample size is recommended for future studies.

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All data generated or analyzed during this study are included in this published article and datasets used in this research are available upon request from the corresponding author.

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Acknowledgements

The authors acknowledge the Shahid Beheshti University of Medical Sciences for financially supporting this research.

Funding

This study was funded by Shahid Beheshti University of Medical Sciences, Tehran, Iran (grant number #22391). HA is supported by the Novo Nordisk Foundation Challenge Programme (NNF17OC0027812).

Author information

Authors and Affiliations

  1. Department of Environmental Health Engineering, School of Public Health and Safety, Shahid Beheshti University of Medical Sciences, Tehran, Iran

    Zahra Namvar, Abbas Shahsavani & Anoushiravan Mohseni-Bandpei

  2. Reproductive Endocrinology Research Center, Research Institute for Endocrine Sciences, Shahid Beheshti University of Medical Sciences, Tehran, Iran

    Fahimeh Ramezani Tehrani & Maryam Mousavi

  3. Air Quality and Climate Change Research Center, Shahid Beheshti University of Medical Sciences, Tehran, Iran

    Abbas Shahsavani & Anoushiravan Mohseni-Bandpei

  4. Department of Public Health, University of Copenhagen, Copenhagen, Denmark

    Heresh Amini

  5. Neuroscience Research Center, Shahid Beheshti University of Medical Sciences, Tehran, Iran

    Fariba Khodagholi

  6. Department of Epidemiology, School of Public Health and Safety, Shahid Beheshti University of Medical Sciences, Tehran, Iran

    Seyed Saeed Hashemi

  7. Department of Biostatistics, Faculty of Medical Sciences, Tarbiat Modares University, Tehran, Iran

    Maryam Mousavi

  8. Department of Public Health Sciences, University of Rochester School of Medicine and Dentistry, Rochester, NY, USA

    Philip K. Hopke

  9. Institute for a Sustainable Environment, Clarkson University, Potsdam, NY, USA

    Philip K. Hopke

  10. Department of Environmental Health Engineering, School of Public Health, Tehran University of Medical Sciences, Tehran, Iran

    Elahe Shahhosseini

  11. Endocrine Research Center, Research Institute for Endocrine Sciences, Shahid Beheshti University of Medical Sciences, Tehran, Iran

    Fereidoun Azizi

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  1. Zahra Namvar
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  2. Fahimeh Ramezani Tehrani
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  3. Abbas Shahsavani
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  11. Anoushiravan Mohseni-Bandpei
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Contributions

Zahra Namvar: Design, Conceptualization, writing — original draft. Fahimeh Ramezani Tehrani: design, conceptualization, writing- reviewing and editing. Abbas Shahsavani: conceptualization, supervision, writing — reviewing and editing. Heresh Amini: methodology and modeling, writing — reviewing and editing. Fariba Khodagholi: writing — reviewing and editing. Seyed Saeed Hashemi: methodology, formal analysis. Maryam Mousavi: formal analysis, writing — reviewing and editing. Philip K. Hopke: methodology, writing — reviewing and editing. Elahe Shahhosseini: data collection, writing — reviewing and editing. Fereidoun Azizi: data collection, writing — reviewing and editing. Anoushiravan Mohseni-Bandpei: conceptualization, project administration, writing — reviewing and editing.

Corresponding author

Correspondence to Anoushiravan Mohseni-Bandpei.

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Ethics code (IR.SBMU.RETECH.REC.1398.855) was approved by the ethics committee of Shahid Beheshti University of Medical Sciences.

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The authors declare no competing interests.

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Namvar, Z., Ramezani Tehrani, F., Shahsavani, A. et al. Association of ambient air pollution and age at menopause: a population-based cohort study in Tehran, Iran. Air Qual Atmos Health 15, 2231–2238 (2022). https://doi.org/10.1007/s11869-022-01247-3

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  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s11869-022-01247-3

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