ArticleFrontiers in public health2025
Volatile organic compounds exposure associated with frailty in United States adults from NHANES 2011-2018.
Article in Frontiers in public health, 2025. The graph could read no effect estimate from its abstract, so it casts no vote on the map. Cited by 2 papers.
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Who cites it
2 citing papers in PubMed.
- Urban exposures, frailty, and mental illness in World Trade Center Health Program responders.Nature communications · 2026Article
- Urban Exposures, Frailty, and Mental Illness in World Trade Center Health Program Responders.medRxiv : the preprint server for health sciences · 2026Article
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Authors and funding
5 authors.
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Abstract
Background: Whether environmentally relevant exposure to volatile organic compounds (VOCs) contributes to frailty remains unknown. We examined urinary VOC metabolites (VOCms) and their mixtures in relation to frailty in a nationally representative U.S. cohort. Methods: We analysed 2,715 adults (≥ 20 y) from NHANES 2011-2018 in a cross-sectional design. Frailty was defined with a 48-item index. Sixteen creatinine-adjusted VOCms were quantified. Single metabolites were evaluated with survey-weighted logistic regression. Two-directional weighted-quantile-sum regression (WQS), grouped Bayesian kernel machine regression (BKMR) and quantile g-computation (qgcomp) characterized mixture effects, and sex- and age-stratified subgroup analyses were performed. Mediation by Results: Four metabolites-DHBMA, CEMA, HPMMA and MHBMA3-were each positively associated with frailty (adjusted OR per log₁₀-unit 1.67-2.59). The positive WQS index increased frailty odds by 25% (OR = 1.25, 95% CI 1.17-1.33), whereas the negative index lowered odds by 17% (OR = 0.83, 0.75-0.91). Only the positive index remained significant in men and in adults ≥ 65 y; MHBMA3 dominated male weights (18%), HPMMA female weights (16%). BKMR confirmed a monotonic dose-response for the positive group, whereas qgcomp detected no overall effect. Bilirubin and albumin jointly mediated 5-20% of the associations; GGT showed no significant mediation. Conclusion: Urinary VOCm mixtures are linked to frailty at population exposure levels, with risk driven by four metabolites and most pronounced in men and older adults. Oxidative stress explains part-but not all-of the association, suggesting additional pathways. Reducing VOC exposure may help preserve physiological reserve; longitudinal studies are warranted to confirm causality.
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