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An examination of the relationship between air pollution, physical activity, and respiratory response in adolescents (303258)

Keywords: air, pollution, respiratory, pulmonary, environment, exercise, physical activity, inflammation, Adolescents, inhaled, dose, exhaled nitric oxide, glutathione, general linear mixed model, oxidative stress,

Adolescents are uniquely susceptible to adverse health effects associated with air pollution exposure, including respiratory inflammation and decreased lung function. Increased ventilation and inspiratory flow rates due to physical activity in the presence of air pollution will increase the inhaled dose of air pollutants. However, physical activity can also affect lung function and may moderate the relationship between air pollution and lung function. The mechanisms that underpin the complex interplay between air pollution, physical activity, and lung function may be more sensitive to the inhaled dose of air pollution than to ambient exposure alone. Due to limitations in measuring inhaled dose in field settings, most literature on the topic models only the ambient concentration of air pollution. This study uses a novel method to estimate the air pollution inhaled dose and employs a general linear mixed model to better understand the relationship between inhaled doses of air pollution, physical activity, and markers of oxidative stress in the airway, namely, exhaled nitric oxide, oxidized exhaled breath condensate glutathione, and changes in lung function among healthy adolescents.