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Perceived environmental pollution and subjective cognitive decline (SCD) or SCD-related functional difficulties among the general population

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Abstract

This study aimed to determine whether perceived environmental pollution is associated with subjective cognitive decline (SCD) or SCD-related functional difficulties. We conducted a cross-sectional study using data from a nationwide sample of 191,054 individuals aged ≥19 years from the 2018 Korea Community Health Survey. Perceived air, water, soil, noise, and green space pollution was assessed. To investigate the dose-response effect of the amount of perceived environmental pollution, we determined whether an increasing number of types of perceived environmental pollution also increased the odds of having SCD or SCD-related functional difficulties. Among the 191,054 individuals, the prevalence of SCD and SCD-related functional difficulties was 17.7% (N = 33,853) and 2.2% (N = 4139), respectively. Perception of air, soil, or noise pollution was significantly associated with SCD. However, the perception of any type of environmental pollution was not significantly associated with SCD-related functional difficulties. With regard to a dose-response effect, individuals perceiving a greater number of types of environmental pollution had significantly higher odds of SCD or SCD-related functional difficulties. This association was notably more evident in the younger age group.

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Data availability

Data will be made available on request. The dataset is available on the Korea Community Health Survey website (https://chs.cdc.go.kr/chs/rdr/rdrInfoProcessMain.do).

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Department of Preventive Medicine and Public Health, Ajou University School of Medicine, 206 World Cup-ro, Yeongtong-gu, Suwon-si, Gyeonggi-do, 16499, South Korea

    Yeong Jun Ju & Soon Young Lee

  2. Institute of Health Services Research, Yonsei University College of Medicine, Seoul, South Korea

    Yeong Jun Ju, Joo Eun Lee & Soon Young Lee

  3. Cosmo Internal Medicine, Daejeon, South Korea

    Joo Eun Lee

Authors
  1. Yeong Jun Ju
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  2. Joo Eun Lee
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Contributions

Conceptualization: Yeong Jun Ju and Joo Eun Lee

Data curation and formal analysis: Yeong Jun Ju

Drafted the manuscript: Yeong Jun and Joo Eun Lee

Study supervision and validation: Soon Young Lee

All coauthors contributed significantly to this manuscript. In addition, all authors read and approved the final manuscript.

Corresponding author

Correspondence to Soon Young Lee.

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Ethics approval and consent to participate

The Korea Community Health Survey (KCHS) data are openly published. Participants’ data were fully anonymized prior to release. Our study was excluded from the review list pursuant to Article 2.2 of the Enforcement Rule of Bioethics and Safety Act in Korea, since the data was exempted from IRB review.

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Not applicable

Competing interests

The authors declare no competing interests.

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Responsible Editor: Lotfi Aleya

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Ju, Y.J., Lee, J.E. & Lee, S.Y. Perceived environmental pollution and subjective cognitive decline (SCD) or SCD-related functional difficulties among the general population. Environ Sci Pollut Res 28, 31289–31300 (2021). https://doi.org/10.1007/s11356-021-12831-y

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  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s11356-021-12831-y

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