Ambient fine particulate matter of diameter ≤ 2.5 μm and risk of hemorrhagic stroke: a systemic review and meta-analysis of cohort studies

Ambient fine particulate matter of 2.5 μm or less in diameter (PM2.5) of environment contamination is deemed as a risk factor of cerebrovascular diseases. Yet there is still no explicit evidence strongly supporting that PM2.5 with per unit increment can increase the risk of hemorrhagic stroke (HS). Literatures were searched from PubMed, Cochrane, and Embase. After the systemic review of relevant studies, random effects model was used to perform meta-analysis and to evaluate the association between PM2.5 and risk of HS. Seven cohort studies were finally included, involving more than 6 million people and 37,667 endpoint events (incidence or mortality of HS). Total scores of quality assessment were 50. Pooled hazard ratio (HR) for crude HRs was 1.13 (95%CI: 1.09–1.17) (CI for confidence interval). Pooled HR of subgroup analysis for current smoking with exposure to growing PM2.5 was 1.14 (95%CI: 0.92–2.15) and for never and former smoking was 1.04 (95%CI: 0.74–1.46). Ambient PM2.5 level is significantly associated with the risk of HS, which might be a potential risk factor of HS. Smoking does not further increase the risk of HS under exposure of PM2.5.