Associations between Air Pollution and Psychiatric Symptoms in The Normative Aging Study.

Background: Environmental risk factors for psychiatric health are poorly identified. We examined the association between air pollution and psychiatric symptoms, which are often precursors to the development of psychiatric disorders.

Methods: This study included 570 participants in the US Veterans Administration (VA) Normative Aging Study and 1,114 visits (defined as an onsite follow-up at the VA with physical examination and questionnaires) from 2000-2014 with information on the Brief Symptom Inventory (BSI) to assess their psychiatric symptom levels.

Modifying effects of the HFE polymorphisms on the association between lead burden and cognitive decline.

Background: As iron and lead promote oxidative damage, and hemochromatosis (HFE) gene polymorphisms increase body iron burden, HFE variant alleles may modify the lead burden and cognitive decline relationship.

Objective: Our goal was to assess the modifying effects of HFE variants on the lead burden and cognitive decline relation in older adults.

Methods: We measured tibia and patella lead using K-X-ray fluorescence (1991-1999) among participants of the Normative Aging Study, a longitudinal study of community-dwelling men from greater Boston.