{"doi":"10.17615/w2ft-ar64","title":"Ambient air pollution and long-term trajectories of episodic memory decline among older women in the whims-echo cohort","abstract":"BACKGROUND: Episodic memory decline varies by age and underlying neuropathology. Whether ambient air pollution contributes to the heterogeneity of episodic memory decline in older populations remains unclear. OBJECTIVES: We estimated associations between air pollution exposures and episodic memory decline according to pollutant, exposure time window, age, and latent class subgroups defined by episodic memory trajectories. METHODS: Participants were from the Women’s Health Initiative Memory Study–Epidemiology of Cognitive Health Outcomes. Older women (n = 2,056; 74–92 years of age) completed annual (2008–2018) episodic memory assessments using the telephone-based California Verbal Learning Test (CVLT). We estimated 3-y average fine particulate matter [PM with an aerodynamic diameter of ≤2:5 lm (PM2:5)] and nitrogen dioxide (NO2 ) exposures at baseline and 10 y earlier (recent and remote exposures, respectively), using regionalized national universal kriging. Separate latent class mixed models were used to esti-mate associations between interquartile range increases in exposures and CVLT trajectories in women ≤80 and >80 years of age, adjusting for covariates. RESULTS: Two latent classes were identified for women ≤80 years of age (n = 828), “slow-decliners” {slope = − 0:12=y [95% confidence interval (CI): −0:23, −0:01] and “fast-decliners” [slope = − 1:79=y (95% CI: −2:08, −1:50)]}. In the slow-decliner class, but not the fast-decliner class, PM2:5 exposures were associated with a greater decline in CVLT scores over time, with a stronger association for recent vs. remote exposures [−0:16=y (95% CI: −2:08, −0:03) per 2:88 lg=m3 and −0:11=y (95% CI: −0:22, 0.01) per 3:27 lg=m3, respectively]. Among women ≥80 years of age (n = 1,128), the largest latent class comprised “steady-decliners” [slope = − 1:35=y (95% CI: −1:53, −1:17)], whereas the second class, “cognitively resilient”, had no decline in CVLT on average. PM2:5 was not associated with episodic memory decline in either class. A 6:25-ppb increase in recent NO2 was associated with nonsignificant acceleration of episodic memory decline in the ≤80-y-old fast-decliner class [−0:21=y (95% CI: −0:45, 0.04)], and in the >80-y-old cognitively resilient class [−0:10=y (95% CI: −0:24, 0.03)] and steady-decliner class [−0:11=y (95% CI: −0:27, 0.05)]. Associations with recent NO2 exposure in women >80 years of age were stronger and statistically significant when 267 women with incident probable dementia were excluded [e.g., −0:12=y (95% CI: −0:22, −0:02) for the cognitively resilient class]. In contrast with changes in CVLT over time, there were no associations between exposures and CVLT scores during follow-up in any subgroup. DISCUSSION: In a community-dwelling U.S. population of older women, associations between late-life exposure to ambient air pollution and episodic memory decline varied by age-related cognitive trajectories, exposure time windows, and pollutants.","journal":"UNC Libraries","year":2024,"id":499519,"datarank":0.0,"base_score":0.0,"endowment":0.0,"self_citation_contribution":0.0,"citation_network_contribution":0.0,"self_endowment_contribution":0.0,"citer_contribution":0.0,"corpus_percentile":null,"corpus_rank":null,"citation_count":0,"citer_count":0,"citers_with_citation_signal":0,"citers_with_endowment":0,"datacite_reuse_total":0,"is_dataset":false,"is_dataset_confidence":0.9045,"is_data_producer":false,"deposit_databanks":null,"is_oa":true,"file_count":0,"downloads":0,"has_version_chain":false,"published_date":"2024-01-01","fair_score":null,"fair_percentile":null,"algorithm_id":"datarank_citation_only_1hop_v6","ranking_scope":"data_only","authors":[{"id":226606,"name":"Mark A. Espeland","orcid":"0000-0002-3711-1949","position":1,"is_corresponding":false},{"id":1347440,"name":"X. Wang","orcid":"0000-0002-8779-4514","position":2,"is_corresponding":false},{"id":266060,"name":"Joel D. Kaufman","orcid":"0000-0003-4174-9037","position":3,"is_corresponding":false},{"id":218550,"name":"Eric A. Whitsel","orcid":"0000-0003-4843-3641","position":4,"is_corresponding":false},{"id":266061,"name":"Gregory A. Wellenius","orcid":"0000-0003-0427-7376","position":5,"is_corresponding":false},{"id":11268,"name":"JoAnn E. Manson","orcid":"0000-0002-9426-7595","position":6,"is_corresponding":false},{"id":399451,"name":"Diana Younan","orcid":"0000-0003-1933-8098","position":7,"is_corresponding":false},{"id":264631,"name":"Margaret Gatz","orcid":"0000-0002-1071-9970","position":8,"is_corresponding":false},{"id":835146,"name":"A.J Petkus","orcid":null,"position":9,"is_corresponding":false},{"id":176671,"name":"J Chen","orcid":null,"position":10,"is_corresponding":false},{"id":1347441,"name":"Helena Chui","orcid":"0000-0001-5567-9282","position":11,"is_corresponding":false},{"id":388665,"name":"Daniel P. Beavers","orcid":"0000-0002-4286-9463","position":12,"is_corresponding":false},{"id":835153,"name":"S.M Resnick","orcid":null,"position":0,"is_corresponding":true}],"reference_count":0,"raw_metadata":null,"created_at":"2026-07-19T02:09:53.188165Z","pmid":null,"pmcid":null,"fwci":null,"citation_percentile":null,"influential_citations":0,"oa_status":null,"license":null,"views":0,"total_file_size_bytes":0,"version_count":0,"fair_f":null,"fair_a":null,"fair_i":null,"fair_r":null,"fair_zscore":null,"fair_rationale":null,"fair_model":null,"fair_agent_version":null,"fair_fulltext_source":null,"fair_has_llm":null,"fair_computed_at":null,"clinical_trials":[],"software_tools":[],"db_accessions":[],"linked_datasets":[],"topics":[]}