Study: Air pollution linked to weight gain in middle-aged women

A new University of Michigan (UM) study suggests that air pollution may be a factor in tipping the scale for women’s weight.

According to Xin Wang, epidemiology research investigator at the UM school of public health and the study’s first author, women in their late 40s and early 50s saw increases in their body size and composition measures after being exposed long-term to air pollution — specifically, higher levels of fine particles, nitrogen dioxide, and ozone.

For instance, body fat increased by 4.5% or about 2.6 pounds, according to the study.

Data was drawn from 1,654 White, Black, Chinese, and Japanese women from the study of women’s health across the nation.

The women, whose baseline median age was nearly 50 years, were tracked from 2000 to 2008.

According to the study, annual air pollution exposures were assigned by linking residential addresses with hybrid estimates of air pollutant concentrations.

Body size was measured, and body composition was measured at approximately annual visits.

Exposure to air pollution was linked with higher body fat, higher proportion fat and lower lean mass among midlife women, the study found.

“Since the study focused on midlife women, the findings can’t be generalised to men or women in other age ranges,” Wang said.

Obesity has been a major global health issue in recent decades as with exposure to unhealthy diets and lack of regular exercise.