Monitoring Desk
ISLAMABAD/WASHINGTON: Long-term exposure to air pollution increases the risk of depression, according to a pair of new studies published in the JAMA network of scientific journals.
According to CNN, the study published in JAMA Network Open found that long-term exposure to elevated levels of air pollution raises the risk of late-onset depression among the elderly.
The other study, published in JAMA Psychiatry, said that long-term exposure to even low air pollutants was associated with increased anxiety and depression.
Air pollution has long been linked to respiratory diseases and cardiovascular.
The latest studies add to the growing evidence that air pollution affects mental health.
Air pollution
For the study of the effects of air pollution on elderly Americans, researchers from Emory University and Harvard examined the data of nine million people on Medicare, the United States government health insurance scheme for those over 64.
According to Medicare, more than 1.52 million of them were diagnosed with depression during the study period from 2005 to 2016.
Researchers said, “we observed statistically important harmful associations between long-term exposure to elevated levels of air pollution and raised risk of late-life depression diagnosis,”.
They said that “socioeconomically disadvantaged individuals were observed to be at a higher risk of late-life depression in this study,”. They are simultaneously exposed to social stress and harmful environmental conditions, including air pollution.
