Association of Combined Exposure to Ambient Air Pollutants, Genetic Risk, and Incident Rheumatoid Arthritis: A Prospective Cohort Study in the UK Biobank

BACKGROUND: Evidence for a potential link between air pollution and rheumatoid arthritis (RA) is inconsistent, and the modified effect of genetic sus-ceptibility on the relationship between air pollution and RA has not been well studied.OBJECTIVE: Using a general population cohort from the UK Biobank, this study aimed to investigate the associations between various air pollutants and the risk of incident RA and to further estimate the impact of combined exposure to ambient air pollutants on the risk of developing RA under the modification effect of genetic predisposition.METHODS: A total of 342,973 participants with completed genotyping data and who were free of RA at baseline were included in the study. An air pollution score was constructed by summing the concentrations of each pollutant weighted by the regression coefficients with RA from single -pollutant models to assess the combined effect of air pollutants, including particulate matter (PM) with diameters <= 2.5 mu m (PM2.5), between 2.5 and 10 mu m (PM2.5-10), and <= 10 mu m (PM10), as well as nitrogen dioxide (NO2) and nitrogen oxides (NOx). In addition, the polygenic risk score (PRS) of RA was calculated to characterize individual genetic risk. The Cox proportional hazard model was used to estimate hazard ratios (HRs) and 95% con-fidence intervals (95% CIs) of associations of single air pollutant, air pollution score, or PRS with incident RA.RESULTS: During a median follow-up time of 8.1 y, 2,034 incident events of RA were recorded. The HRs (95% CIs) of incident RA per interquartile range in-crement in PM2.5, PM2.5-10, PM10, NO2, and NOx were 1.07 (1.01, 1.13), 1.00 (0.96, 1.04), 1.01 (0.96, 1.07), 1.03 (0.98, 1.09), and 1.07 (1.02, 1.12), respec-tively. We also found a positive exposure-response relationship between air pollution score and RA risk (PTrend = 0.000053). The HR (95% CI) of incident RA was 1.14 (1.00, 1.29) in the highest quartile group compared with the lowest quartile group of the air pollution score. Furthermore, the results of the combined effect of air pollution score and PRS on the RA risk showed that the risk of RA incidence in the highest genetic risk and air pollution score group was almost twice that of the lowest genetic risk and air pollution score group [incidence rate (IR) per 100,000 person-years: 98.46 vs. 51.19, and HR = 1.73 (95% CI: 1.39, 2.17) vs. 1 (reference)], although no statistically significant interaction between the air pollution and genetic risk for incident RA was found (PInteraction > 0.05).DISCUSSION: The results revealed that long-term combined exposure to ambient air pollutants might increase the risk of RA, particularly in those with high genetic risk. https://doi.org/10.1289/EHP10710

Automated summary

This study investigated the associations between various air pollutants and the risk of incident rheumatoid arthritis (RA) and further estimated the impact of combined exposure to ambient air pollutants on the risk of developing RA under the modification effect of genetic predisposition.