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.