Does healthy lifestyle attenuate the detrimental effects of urinary polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbons on phenotypic aging? An analysis from NHANES 2001–2010

Objectives It remains unknown whether healthy lifestyle attenuates the detrimental effects of urinary monohydroxy polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbons (OH-PAHs) on aging. This study aims: 1) to examine the associations of OH-PAHs and lifestyle with Phenotypic Age Acceleration (PhenoAge.Accel), a novel aging measure, respectively; and 2) to evaluate the potential interaction effects of OH-PAHs and lifestyle on PhenoAge.Accel. Methods Cross-sectional data of 2579 participants (aged 20-84 years, n=1292 females) from the National Health and Nutrition Examination Survey for years 2001-2010 were analyzed. A lifestyle index was constructed based on five components (drinking, smoking, body mass index, physical activity, and diet), ranging from 0 to 5. We calculated PhenoAge.Accel using algorithms developed previously. General linear regression models were used to examine the associations. Results We observed strong associations of OH-PAHs and lifestyle with PhenoAge.Accel. For instance, one unit increase in ∑NAP (sum of 1- and 2-hydroxynaphthalene) was associated with 0.37 year (95% confidence interval [CI]: 0.26, 0.48) increase in PhenoAge.Accel. We did not observe statistically significant interaction effects between OH-PAHs and lifestyle on PhenoAge.Accel. After stratified by sex, we observed strong associations as well as statistically significant interactions of OH-PAHs and lifestyle with PhenoAge.Accel among females. Conclusions Both OH-PAHs and lifestyle were independently associated with phenotypic aging and there were statistically significant interactions between OH-PAHs and lifestyle on phenotypic aging among females. The findings highlight the importance of adherence to a healthy lifestyle to attenuate the detrimental effects of exposures to PAHs on phenotypic aging among females.