Previous studies have investigated the association between ambient air pollution and blood pressure (BP) in children and adolescents, however, results have been inconsistent.

Recently, a research article was published in JAHA, an authoritative journal in the field of cardiovascular disease. Researchers aimed to conduct a systematic review and meta-analysis to evaluate the relationship between short-term and long-term ambient air pollutant exposure and BP values in children and adolescents.

The researchers searched PubMed, Web of Science, and Embase databases before September 6, 2020. Two authors independently searched and selected studies, extracted data and assessed study quality. Studies were divided into categories based on the composition of air pollutants (NO2, particulate matter (PM) with diameters ≤10 μm or ≤2.5 μm) and exposure time. The researchers calculated the beta regression coefficient (β) and its 95% CI to assess the strength of the effect for each 10 μg/m3 increase in air pollutants.

This meta-analysis included 14 articles out of 36,650 articles. Meta-analysis showed that short-term exposure to PM with a diameter of ≤10 μm (β = 0.267; 95% CI 0.033‒0.501) was associated with increased systolic blood pressure. In addition, long-term exposure to PM with diameter ≤2.5μm (β=1.809; 95%CI is 0.962‒2.655), PM with diameter ≤10μm (β=0.526; 95%CI is 0.095-0.958) and NO2 (β=0.754; 95% CI 0.541-0.968) is associated with systolic blood pressure values, and long-term exposure to PM ≤2.5 μm in diameter (β=0.931; 95% CI 0.157-1.705) and PM ≤10 μm in diameter (β=0.378; 95% CI 0.022-0.735) is related to diastolic blood pressure.