The farther a bronchiectasis patient lives from a major road, the better, according to research results presented at the 2013 European Respiratory Society Annual Congress, in Barcelona, Spain, which linked air pollution to bronchiectasis mortality.
Using hazard ratios to estimate the risk of death, investigators found that participants (all of whom had with non-CF bronchiectasis) were less likely to die from bronchiectasis the farther they lived from a major road (hazard ratio 0.36 for every tenfold increase in distance to a major road).
“Our results are the first to link air pollution with the risk of death in people with bronchiectasis and adds to a number of other studies showing the dangers of living close to a busy road,” said lead author, Pieter Goeminne.
