Renaissance School of Medicine at Stony Brook University Reports Findings in Managed Care (Long-term exposure to PM2.5 species and all-cause mortality among Medicare patients using mixtures analyses): Managed Care

2024 JAN 31 (NewsRx) -- By a News Reporter-Staff News Editor at Insurance Daily News -- New research on Managed Care is the subject of a report. According to news reporting originating in Stony Brook, New York, by NewsRx journalists, research stated, “The relationship between long-term exposure to PM and mortality is well-established; however, the role of individual species is less understood. In this study, we assess the overall effect of long-term exposure to PM as a mixture of species and identify the most harmful of those species while controlling for the others.”

The news reporters obtained a quote from the research from the Renaissance School of Medicine at Stony Brook University, “We looked at changes in mortality among Medicare participants 65 years of age or older from 2000 to 2018 in response to changes in annual levels of 15 PM components, namely: organic carbon, elemental carbon, nickel, lead, zinc, sulfate, potassium, vanadium, nitrate, silicon, copper, iron, ammonium, calcium, and bromine. Data on exposure were derived from high-resolution, spatio-temporal models which were then aggregated to ZIP code. We used the rate of deaths in each ZIP code per year as the outcome of interest. Covariates included demographic, temperature, socioeconomic, and access-to-care variables. We used a mixtures approach, a weighted quantile sum, to analyze the joint effects of PM species on mortality. We further looked at the effects of the components when PM mass levels were at concentrations below 8 mg/m, and effect modification by sex, race, Medicaid status, and Census division. We found that for each decile increase in the levels of the PM mixture, the rate of all-cause mortality increased by 1.4% (95% CI: 1.3%-1.4%), the rate of cardiovascular mortality increased by 2.1% (95% CI: 2.0%-2.2%), and the rate of respiratory mortality increased by 1.7% (95% CI: 1.5%-1.9%). These effects estimates remained significant and slightly higher when we restricted to lower concentrations. The highest weights for harmful effects were due to organic carbon, nickel, zinc, sulfate, and vanadium.”

According to the news reporters, the research concluded: “Long-term exposure to PM species, as a mixture, increased the risk of all-cause, cardiovascular, and respiratory mortality.”

This research has been peer-reviewed.

For more information on this research see: Long-term exposure to PM2.5 species and all-cause mortality among Medicare patients using mixtures analyses. Environmental Research, 2024;246:118175. Environmental Research can be contacted at: Academic Press Inc Elsevier Science, 525 B St, Ste 1900, San Diego, CA 92101-4495, USA. (Elsevier - www.elsevier.com; Environmental Research - http://www.journals.elsevier.com/environmental-research/)

Our news correspondents report that additional information may be obtained by contacting Mahdieh Danesh Yazdi, Program in Public Health, Dept. of Family, Population and Preventive Medicine, Renaissance School of Medicine at Stony Brook University, Stony Brook, NY, United States. Additional authors for this research include Heresh Amini, Yaguang Wei, Edgar Castro, Liuhua Shi and Joel D. Schwartz.

The publisher of the journal Environmental Research can be contacted at: Academic Press Inc Elsevier Science, 525 B St, Ste 1900, San Diego, CA 92101-4495, USA.

(Our reports deliver fact-based news of research and discoveries from around the world.)