Susceptibility of prediabetes to the health effect of air pollution: a community-based panel study with a nested case-control design

Background Recent studies suggest that people with diabetes or who are at risk of developing diabetes, i.e. prediabetic (preDM), are potentially susceptible to air pollution, but the underlying mechanisms remain unclear because the existing epidemiological studies did not include healthy control groups and only focused on limited health outcomes. We hypothesized that acute exposure to ambient fine particles (PM2.5) will lead to enhanced pulmonary and cardiometabolic changes in preDM than healthy individuals.