DOI: 10.5061/dryad.fqz612k3j
title: The association between long-term air pollution exposure and Chinese visceral adiposity index: A nationwide study of middle-aged and older adults

description: Air pollution has been closely linked to diabetes, metabolic disorders,
 and cardiovascular diseases; visceral adiposity is a common high-risk
 factor for these conditions. However, the potential role of air pollution
 on visceral adiposity remains unclear. In this study, we investigated the
 association between exposure to multiple air pollutants and visceral
 adiposity using the Chinese visceral adiposity index (cVAI) in middle-aged
 (45 - 60 years) and older (&gt; 60 years) Chinese adults. We conducted
 a cross-sectional study using data from 7,552 participants aged ≥45 years
 from the 2015 China Health and Retirement Longitudinal Study 2015. Data
 related to air pollution exposure levels, including particulate matter
 with an aerodynamic diameters ≤ 2.5 μm (PM2.5), particulate matter with an
 aerodynamic diameters ≤ 10 μm (PM10), nitrogen dioxide (NO2), ozone (O3),
 and sulfur dioxide (SO2), were acquired from the ChinaHighAirPollution
 dataset. Restricted cubic spline analysis was then used to investigate
 potential non-linear associations. Weighted quantile sum (WQS) regression
 was also used to address co-exposure to multiple pollutants and identify
 the relative contributions of each pollutant. Compared to the lowest
 quantile, exposure to the highest quartile levels of PM2.5, PM10, NO2, O3,
 and SO2 was associated with a significant increase in cVAI (all p for
 trend &lt;0.0001). Males and smokers exhibited stronger associations
 between air pollutant exposure and cVAI(p for interaction &lt; 0.05).
 Specifically, smokers in the highest quartile of PM2.5 exposure had a β
 coefficient of 16.89(95%CI:11.00,22.78), while males had a β coefficient
 of 14.38(95%CI:9.68,19.07), indicating significantly higher risks of
 increased visceral adiposity in these groups. WQS analysis identified NO2
 and PM2.5 as the primary contributors to increased cVAI. This study is the
 first to reveal that air pollution, particularly PM2.5 and NO2, was
 significantly associated with increased visceral adiposity in middle-aged
 and older Chinese adults, especially for high-risk groups, such as males
 and smokers. It highlights the urgent need for public health policies to
 reduce air pollution exposure to mitigate the risk of visceral adiposity
 and its associated metabolic disorders.
description: # The association between long-term air pollution exposure and Chinese
 visceral adiposity index: A nationwide study of middle-aged and older
 adults
 [https://doi.org/10.5061/dryad.fqz612k3j](https://doi.org/10.5061/dryad.fqz612k3j) ## Description of the data and file structure Data from the CHARLS database [https://charls.pku.edu.cn/](https://charls.pku.edu.cn/) ### Files and variables #### File: data.csv **Description:** Variables in the dataset ##### Variables * sequence number * CO: Carbon Monoxide (μg/m³) * NO2: Nitrogen Dioxide (μg/m³) * O3: Ozone (μg/m³) * PM10: Particulate Matter ≤ 10 micrometers (μg/m³) * PM2.5: Particulate Matter ≤ 2.5 micrometers (μg/m³) * SO2: Sulfur Dioxide (μg/m³) * wave: Number of rounds of participation in the survey * Sex: Gender of participants * Region: area of residence of participants (south or north) * Drinking: Alcohol consumption by participants (no or &gt;1m or &lt;1m) * Smoke: Participants' smoking status (yes or no) * Health_status: Participants' health (good or poor) * Hypertension: Whether the participant had high blood pressure (yes or no) * Physical_disability: Whether the participant has Physical disability (yes or no) * cVAI: Chinese visceral adiposity index * NO2Q.median: The median of each quartile of Nitrogen Dioxide (μg/m³) * PM2.5Q.median: The median of each quartile of Particulate Matter ≤ 2.5 micrometers (μg/m³) * O3Q.median: The median of each quartile of Ozone (μg/m³) * PM10Q.median: The median of each quartile of Particulate Matter ≤ 10 micrometers (μg/m³) * COQ.median: The median of each quartile of Carbon Monoxide (μg/m³) * SO2Q.median: The median of each quartile of Sulfur Dioxide (μg/m³) * Age_group: Age groupings (&lt;=60,&gt;60 years) ## Code/software  R software (Version 4.4.1; R Foundation for Statistical Computing, Vienna, Austria, [https://www.r-project.org/](https://www.r-project.org/)) ## Access information Other publicly accessible locations of the data: * CHARLS database Data was derived from the following sources: * All datasets are available from the CHARLS database ([https://charls.charlsdata.com/users/profile/index/zh-cn.html](https://charls.charlsdata.com/users/profile/index/zh-cn.html))