review · Clinical Interventions in Aging
Indoor air pollution contributes to approximately 3.8 million deaths worldwide every year, with older adults being particularly vulnerable due to the substantial time they spend inside. A systematic review evaluated evidence across 38 relevant studies to determine the cardiovascular effects of carbon monoxide, nitrogen dioxide, and particulate matter (PM2.5 and PM10) on this population. The findings confirm that indoor exposure to these pollutants leads to serious cardiovascular complications. Documented health outcomes include higher mortality, myocardial infarction, stroke, and ischaemic heart disease, alongside arrhythmias and hypertension. Consequently, exposure drives increased emergency room visits and hospital admissions among older individuals, establishing indoor air pollution as a significant cardiovascular health threat for this group.
Older people spend significant amounts of time indoors, making them highly susceptible to indoor air quality hazards. Demonstrating the direct relationship between specific common pollutants and severe cardiovascular conditions, including heart attacks and strokes, provides crucial evidence to guide public health interventions, elder care facility standards, and domestic exposure mitigation strategies.
The abstract synthesises clinical and observational findings rather than developing an intervention, so it does not indicate a direct commercial application pathway. However, the demonstrated health risks could inform the requirements for indoor air quality monitoring systems or filtration technologies aimed at elder care environments, though this represents early-stage background evidence rather than an applied commercial product.
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Indoor air pollution accounts for approximately 3.8 million inopportune deaths annually at global level. Due to spending more time indoors, children and older adults are especially susceptible to the health risks of indoor air pollution. This review seeks to summarise existing knowledge on the cardiovascular health effects of three common indoor air pollutants, namely carbon monoxide (CO), particulate matter (PM<sub>2.5</sub> and PM<sub>10</sub>), and Nitrogen dioxide (NO<sub>2</sub>), focusing on older adults. We systematically reviewed the literature (PROSPERO CRD42024479220) on PubMed, Google Scholar, Scopus, Web of Science and Embase. The search yielded 20,914 records. Two independent reviewers screened the articles using titles, abstracts, and full-length articles written in English. Upon a detailed assessment of all the records, the review considered 38 full-length articles. Several studies reported mortality, myocardial infarction, stroke, increased hospitalisation and increased emergency room visits due to exposure to indoor air pollution. A few studies reported arrhythmias, hypertension and Ischaemic heart disease due to exposure to indoor air pollutants. The increased mortality, morbidity, hospitalization, and emergency rooms visits resulting from indoor air pollution associated CVDs makes indoor air pollution a health risk for older adults. There is, therefore, a need to synthesize information on studies relate d to how the selected indoor air pollutants affected the cardiovascular health of older adults.
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DOI: 10.2147/cia.s480054
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