Mental and Physical Stress Responses to Personal Ultrafine Particle Exposure in Adolescents

Ashley L. Turner, Cole Brokamp, Chris Wolfe, Tiina Reponen, Kelly J. Brunst and Patrick H. Ryan
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Ashley L. Turner: Division of Biostatistics and Epidemiology, Cincinnati Children’s Hospital Medical Center, Cincinnati, OH 45229, USA
Cole Brokamp: Division of Biostatistics and Epidemiology, Cincinnati Children’s Hospital Medical Center, Cincinnati, OH 45229, USA
Chris Wolfe: Division of Biostatistics and Epidemiology, Cincinnati Children’s Hospital Medical Center, Cincinnati, OH 45229, USA
Tiina Reponen: Department of Environmental and Public Health Sciences, College of Medicine, University of Cincinnati, Cincinnati, OH 45221, USA
Kelly J. Brunst: Department of Environmental and Public Health Sciences, College of Medicine, University of Cincinnati, Cincinnati, OH 45221, USA
Patrick H. Ryan: Division of Biostatistics and Epidemiology, Cincinnati Children’s Hospital Medical Center, Cincinnati, OH 45229, USA

IJERPH, 2022, vol. 19, issue 12, 1-10

Abstract: Incidence rates of mental health disorders among adolescents is increasing, indicating a strong need for effective prevention efforts at a population level. The etiology of mental health disorders includes genetic, social, and environmental factors. Ultrafine particles (UFPs; particles less than 0.1 μm in diameter) have been shown to exert neurotoxic effects on the brain; however, epidemiologic evidence on the relationship between UFPs and childhood mental health outcomes is unclear. The objective of this study was to determine if exposure to UFPs was associated with symptoms of mental health in adolescents. Adolescents completed personal UFP monitoring for one week as well as a series of validated Patient-Reported Outcomes Measurement Information System (PROMIS) assessments to measure five domains of mental and physical stress symptoms. Multivariable linear regression models were used to estimate the association between PROMIS domain T -scores and median weekly personal UFP exposure with the inclusion of interactions to explore sex differences. We observed that median weekly UFP exposure was significantly associated with physical stress symptoms (β: 5.92 per 10-fold increase in UFPs, 95% CI [0.72, 11.13]) but no other measured domains. Further, we did not find effect modification by sex on any of the PROMIS outcomes. The results of this study indicate UFPs are associated with physical symptoms of stress response among adolescents, potentially contributing to mental health disorders in this population.

Keywords: ultrafine particles; exposure monitoring; mental health risk; adolescent mental health; adolescent emotional distress (search for similar items in EconPapers)
JEL-codes: I I1 I3 Q Q5 (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Date: 2022
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