A review and analysis of personal and ambient PM < sub > 2.5 < /sub > measurements: Implications for epidemiology studies

Environ Res. 2021 Sep 14:112019. doi: 10.1016/j.envres.2021.112019. Online ahead of print.ABSTRACTBACKGROUND: In epidemiology studies, ambient measurements of PM2.5 are often used as surrogates for personal exposures. However, it is unclear the degree to which ambient PM2.5 reflects personal exposures.OBJECTIVE: In order to examine potential sources of bias in epidemiology studies, we conducted a review and meta-analysis of studies to determine the extent to which short-term measurements of ambient PM2.5 levels are related to short-term measurements of personal PM2.5 levels.METHODS: We conducted a literature search of studies reporting both personal and ambient measurements of PM2.5 published in the last 10 years (2009-2019) and incorporated studies published prior to 2009 from reviews.RESULTS: Seventy-one studies were identified. Based on 17 studies reporting slopes, a meta-analysis revealed an overall slope of 0.56 μg/m3 (95% CI: [0.39, 0.73]) personal PM2.5 per μg/m3 increase in ambient PM2.5. Slopes for summer months were higher (slope = 0.73, 95% CI: [0.64, 0.81]) than for winter (slope = 0.46, 95% CI: [0.36, 0.57]). Based on 44 studies reporting correlations, we calculated an overall personal-ambient PM2.5 correlation of 0.63 (95% CI: [0.55, 0.71]). Correlations were stronger in studies conducted in Canada (r = 0.86, 95% CI: [0.67, 0.94]) compared to the USA (r = 0.60, 95% CI: [0.49, 0.70]) and China (r = 0.60, 95% CI: [0.46, 0.71]). Correlations also were stronger in...
Source: Environmental Research - Category: Environmental Health Authors: Source Type: research