Roads and air pollution track neurologic disease

Study at a glance

Design

Cohort — Metro Vancouver administrative cohorts of adults 45–84 linking roads/pollution/noise/greenness to neurologic incidence

N

NAD/PD cohorts ~7.3–7.4 million person-years; 13,170 NAD, 4,201 PD, 1,277 AD, 658 MS cases — exact unique-person N not a single primary figure

Population

Adults aged 45–84 in Metro Vancouver with provincial health coverage

Outcome

Incident non-Alzheimer dementia, Parkinson’s, Alzheimer’s, and MS

Structured fields used in claim comparison tables when every cited study has a complete layer.

How this study connects

Role on claims

Each row is a claim on a concept or method page where this paper supports, challenges, or qualifies the statement. Roles are hand-checked — not a model guess.

• SupportsLogistic Regressionmethod

  An administrative neurologic cohort reported 13,170 non-Alzheimer dementia, 4,201 Parkinson, 1,277 Alzheimer and 658 MS cases. Road proximity raised risks; greenness attenuated NAD/PD HRs by 0.3–6.2% and AD ORs by 11–28%. Air pollution associated with NAD and PD, not AD or MS; noise effects were generally null — diagnosis-specific binary/survival models, not one 'neurologic OR'.

  Evidence for the claim as stated.

• SupportsLand-Use Regressionmethod

  LUR air pollutants are often one layer in a correlated traffic bundle. An administrative cohort assigned road proximity, LUR pollutants, modelled noise and NDVI greenness: 13,170 non-Alzheimer dementia, 4,201 Parkinson, 1,277 Alzheimer and 658 MS cases. Road proximity raised risks; greenness attenuated some HRs/ORs; LUR air pollution associated with NAD and PD, not AD or MS; noise was generally null.

  Evidence for the claim as stated.

• SupportsLand-Use Regressionmethod

  These papers do not agree on which traffic-related layer carries the signal. Rome’s analysis is built on NO₂ LUR as the exposure; the neurologic cohort finds air pollution associated with some diagnoses and not others, with greenness attenuating and noise mostly null; the LA preterm paper’s PAH signal is limited by two stations and shorter sampling. Treating 'LUR showed pollution is bad' as a single result hides those splits.

  Evidence for the claim as stated.

Open questions

Tensions this paper is part of

From concept pages' “where studies disagree.” Disagreement means the same question; scope means different assays, populations, or outcomes.

• Scope difference — different assays, populations, or outcomes

  SupportsLand-Use Regression

  These papers do not agree on which traffic-related layer carries the signal. Rome’s analysis is built on NO₂ LUR as the exposure; the neurologic cohort finds air pollution associated with some diagnoses and not others, with greenness attenuating and noise mostly null; the LA preterm paper’s PAH signal is limited by two stations and shorter sampling. Treating 'LUR showed pollution is bad' as a single result hides those splits.

  Also on this tension

  • Supports · Rome NO2 maps 12 years apart still predict deaths
  • Supports · LA air toxics, especially PAHs, track preterm birth

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Same topic cluster — not a recommendation engine.

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