Air Pollution and Dementia.

Abstract

Air pollution is a current and growing global problem. It also has a major adverse effect on our health. Air pollution exposure, a powerful health risk factor, is more likely to cause disease than the commonly known modifiable disease risk factor, and impacts health life reduction and labor productivity degradation in addition to disease outbreaks and early deaths.1,2 The association between air pollution and cardiovascular or respiratory problems has been well documented. Conversely, there has been an insufficient number of studies on the relationship between air pollution and cognitive functions.3,4 In Korea, since the late 1990s, the impact of air pollution on health has been recognized, and epidemiological studies on public health have been actively conducted. However, the relationship between cognitive function and air pollution is insufficient. In this paper, we reviewed the relationship between particulate matter (PM), which inflicts the greatest harm to humans among air pollutants, and cognitive functions and dementia and introduced the plans of the Korean Dementia Association (KDA) for this study on the relationship between PM and dementia.