Associations between outdoor air pollution and
asthma in adults are still scarce, and the underlying
biological mechanisms are poorly understood. Our aim was to study the associations between 1) long-term exposure to outdoor air pollution and current
asthma, 2) exhaled 8-
isoprostane (8-iso; a
biomarker related to oxidative stress) and current
asthma, and 3) outdoor air pollution and exhaled 8-iso.Cross-sectional analyses were conducted in 608 adults (39% with current
asthma) from the first follow-up of the French case-control and family study on
asthma (EGEA; the Epidemiological study of the Genetic and Environmental factors of
Asthma). Data on
nitrogen dioxide,
nitrogen oxides,
particulate matter with a diameter ≤10 and ≤2.5 µm (PM10 and PM2.5), road traffic, and
ozone (O3) were from ESCAPE (European Study of Cohorts for Air Pollution Effects) and IFEN (French Institute for the Environment) assessments. Models took account of city and familial dependence.The risk of current
asthma increased with traffic intensity (adjusted (a)OR 1.09 (95% CI 1.00-1.18) per 5000 vehicles per day), with O3 exposure (aOR 2.04 (95% CI 1.27-3.29) per 10 µg·m-3) and with exhaled 8-iso concentration (aOR 1.50 (95% CI 1.06-2.12) per 1 pg·mL-1). Among participants without
asthma, exhaled 8-iso concentration increased with PM2.5 exposure (adjusted (a)β 0.23 (95% CI 0.005-0.46) per 5 µg·m-3), and decreased with O3 and O3-summer exposures (aβ -0.20 (95% CI -0.39- -0.01) and aβ -0.52 (95% CI -0.77- -0.26) per 10 µg·m-3, respectively).Our results add new insights into a potential role of oxidative stress in the associations between outdoor air pollution and
asthma in adults.