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Panel study using novel sensing devices to assess associations of PM2.5 with heart rate variability and exposure sources

Journal of Exposure Science & Environmental Epidemiology volume 30, pages 937–948 (2020)Cite this article

A Correction to this article was published on 15 September 2020

This article has been updated

Abstract

Background/objective

This work applied a newly developed low-cost sensing (LCS) device (AS-LUNG-P) and a certified medical LCS device (Rooti RX) to assessing PM2.5 impacts on heart rate variability (HRV) and determining important exposure sources, with less inconvenience to subjects.

Methods

Observations using AS-LUNG-P were corrected by side-by-side comparison with GRIMM instruments. Thirty-six nonsmoking healthy subjects aged 20–65 years were wearing AS-LUNG-P and Rooti RX for 2–4 days in both Summer and Winter in Taiwan.

Results

PM2.5 exposures were 12.6 ± 8.9 µg/m3. After adjusting for confounding factors using the general additive mixed model, the standard deviations of all normal to normal intervals reduced by 3.68% (95% confidence level (CI) = 3.06–4.29%) and the ratios of low-frequency power to high-frequency power increased by 3.86% (CI = 2.74–4.99%) for an IQR of 10.7 µg/m3 PM2.5, with impacts lasting for 4.5–5 h. The top three exposure sources were environmental tobacco smoke, incense burning, and cooking, contributing PM2.5 increase of 8.53, 5.85, and 3.52 µg/m3, respectively, during 30-min intervals.

Significance

This is a pioneer in demonstrating application of novel LCS devices to assessing close-to-reality PM2.5 exposure and exposure–health relationships. Significant HRV changes were observed in healthy adults even at low PM2.5 levels.

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Fig. 1: Low-cost PM sensing device, AS-LUNG-P.
Fig. 2: Lagged effect of PM2.5.
Fig. 3: Examples of PM2.5 peak exposures measured using AS-LUNG-P with subjects indicating exposure to a certain source.

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Change history

  • 15 September 2020

    An amendment to this paper has been published and can be accessed via a link at the top of the paper.

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Acknowledgements

The authors would like to acknowledge the funding support from Academia Sinica under “Establishment of PM2.5 Mobile Sensing Technology (Project No. 022324),” “Integrated Multi-source and High-resolution Heat Wave Vulnerability Assessment of Taiwan (AS-104-SS-A02),” and “Trans-disciplinary PM2.5 Exposure Research in Urban Areas for Health-oriented Preventive Strategies (AS-SS-107-03).” We also appreciate the assistance of those who help during the panel study. The contents of this paper are solely the responsibility of the authors and do not represent the official views of the aforementioned institutes and funding agencies.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Research Center for Environmental Changes, Academia Sinica, Taipei, Taiwan

    Shih-Chun Candice Lung, Nathan Chen, Shu-Chuan Hu, Wen-Cheng Vincent Wang, Tzu-Yao Julia Wen & Chun-Hu Liu

  2. Department of Atmospheric Sciences, National Taiwan University, Taipei, Taiwan

    Shih-Chun Candice Lung

  3. Institute of Environmental Health, National Taiwan University, Taipei, Taiwan

    Shih-Chun Candice Lung

  4. Institute of Statistical Science, Academia Sinica, Taipei, Taiwan

    Jing-Shiang Hwang

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Lung, SC.C., Chen, N., Hwang, JS. et al. Panel study using novel sensing devices to assess associations of PM2.5 with heart rate variability and exposure sources. J Expo Sci Environ Epidemiol 30, 937–948 (2020). https://doi.org/10.1038/s41370-020-0254-y

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