The association between ambient fine particulate air pollution and physical activity: a cohort study of university students living in Beijing

International Journal of Behavioral Nutrition and Physical Activity

Research

Ruiling Zhang¹  Shelby Paige Gordon¹  Hongjun Yu²  Miao Yu³ 

[1] Department of Interdisciplinary Health Sciences, University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign, Urbana, IL, USA;Department of Physical Education, Tsinghua University, Tsinghua Yuan Str, 100084, Beijing, China;Department of Reference Service in Library, Renmin University of China, Zhongguan Cun Str, 100872, Beijing, China;

关键词: Air pollution;    Fine particulate matter;    Physical activity;    Moderate-to-vigorous physical activity, youth;   

DOI  :  10.1186/s12966-017-0592-x

 received in 2017-07-13, accepted in 2017-09-27,  发布年份 2017

来源: Springer

【 摘 要 】

BackgroundAir pollution has become a substantial environmental issue affecting human health and health-related behavior in China. Physical activity is widely accepted as a method to promote health and well-being and is potentially influenced by air pollution. Previous population-based studies have focused on the impact of air pollution on physical activity in the U.S. using a cross-sectional survey method; however, few have examined the impact on middle income countries such as China using follow-up data. The purpose of this study is to examine the impact of ambient fine particulate matter (PM2.5) air pollution on physical activity among freshmen students living in Beijing by use of follow-up data.MethodsWe conducted 4 follow-up health surveys on 3445 freshmen students from Tsinghua University from 2012 to 2013 and 2480 freshmen completed all 4 surveys. Linear individual fixed-effect regressions were performed based on repeated-measure physical activity-related health behaviors and ambient PM2.5 concentrations among the follow-up participants.ResultsAn increase in ambient PM2.5 concentration by one standard deviation (44.72 μg/m3) was associated with a reduction in 22.32 weekly minutes of vigorous physical activity (95% confidence interval [CI] = 24.88–19.77), a reduction in 10.63 weekly minutes of moderate physical activity (95% CI = 14.61–6.64), a reduction in 32.45 weekly minutes of moderate to vigorous physical activity (MVPA) (95% CI = 37.63–27.28), and a reduction in 226.14 weekly physical activity MET-minute scores (95% CI = 256.06–196.21). The impact of ambient PM2.5 concentration on weekly total minutes of moderate physical activity tended to be greater among males than among females.ConclusionsAmbient PM2.5 air pollution significantly discouraged physical activity among Chinese freshmen students living in Beijing. Future studies are warranted to replicate study findings in other Chinese cities and universities, and policy interventions are urgently needed to reduce air pollution levels in China.

【 授权许可】

CC BY   
© The Author(s). 2017