TY - JOUR T1 - Cross-sectional associations between air pollution and chronic bronchitis: an ESCAPE meta-analysis across five cohorts JF - Thorax JO - Thorax SP - 1005 LP - 1014 DO - 10.1136/thoraxjnl-2013-204352 VL - 69 IS - 11 AU - Yutong Cai AU - Tamara Schikowski AU - Martin Adam AU - Anna Buschka AU - Anne-Elie Carsin AU - Benedicte Jacquemin AU - Alessandro Marcon AU - Margaux Sanchez AU - Andrea Vierkötter AU - Zaina Al-Kanaani AU - Rob Beelen AU - Matthias Birk AU - Bert Brunekreef AU - Marta Cirach AU - Françoise Clavel-Chapelon AU - Christophe Declercq AU - Kees de Hoogh AU - Audrey de Nazelle AU - Regina E Ducret-Stich AU - Virginia Valeria Ferretti AU - Bertil Forsberg AU - Margaret W Gerbase AU - Rebecca Hardy AU - Joachim Heinrich AU - Gerard Hoek AU - Debbie Jarvis AU - Dirk Keidel AU - Diana Kuh AU - Mark J Nieuwenhuijsen AU - Martina S Ragettli AU - Andrea Ranzi AU - Thierry Rochat AU - Christian Schindler AU - Dorothea Sugiri AU - Sofia Temam AU - Ming-Yi Tsai AU - Raphaëlle Varraso AU - Francine Kauffmann AU - Ursula Krämer AU - Jordi Sunyer AU - Nino Künzli AU - Nicole Probst-Hensch AU - Anna L Hansell Y1 - 2014/11/01 UR - http://thorax.bmj.com/content/69/11/1005.abstract N2 - Background This study aimed to assess associations of outdoor air pollution on prevalence of chronic bronchitis symptoms in adults in five cohort studies (Asthma-E3N, ECRHS, NSHD, SALIA, SAPALDIA) participating in the European Study of Cohorts for Air Pollution Effects (ESCAPE) project. Methods Annual average particulate matter (PM10, PM2.5, PMabsorbance, PMcoarse), NO2, nitrogen oxides (NOx) and road traffic measures modelled from ESCAPE measurement campaigns 2008–2011 were assigned to home address at most recent assessments (1998–2011). Symptoms examined were chronic bronchitis (cough and phlegm for ≥3 months of the year for ≥2 years), chronic cough (with/without phlegm) and chronic phlegm (with/without cough). Cohort-specific cross-sectional multivariable logistic regression analyses were conducted using common confounder sets (age, sex, smoking, interview season, education), followed by meta-analysis. Results 15 279 and 10 537 participants respectively were included in the main NO2 and PM analyses at assessments in 1998–2011. Overall, there were no statistically significant associations with any air pollutant or traffic exposure. Sensitivity analyses including in asthmatics only, females only or using back-extrapolated NO2 and PM10 for assessments in 1985–2002 (ECRHS, NSHD, SALIA, SAPALDIA) did not alter conclusions. In never-smokers, all associations were positive, but reached statistical significance only for chronic phlegm with PMcoarse OR 1.31 (1.05 to 1.64) per 5 µg/m3 increase and PM10 with similar effect size. Sensitivity analyses of older cohorts showed increased risk of chronic cough with PM2.5abs (black carbon) exposures. Conclusions Results do not show consistent associations between chronic bronchitis symptoms and current traffic-related air pollution in adult European populations. ER -