The Impact of Exposure Measurement Error on the Estimated Concentration–Response Relationship between Long-Term Exposure to PM2.5 and Mortality

Abstract

Our findings suggest that the causal determination for long-term <mml:math xmlns:mml="http://www.w3.org/1998/Math/MathML"><mml:mrow><mml:msub><mml:mrow><mml:mrow><mml:mi>PM</mml:mi></mml:mrow></mml:mrow><mml:mrow><mml:mrow><mml:mn>2.5</mml:mn></mml:mrow></mml:mrow></mml:msub></mml:mrow></mml:math> exposure and mortality is unlikely to be undermined when using high-resolution ambient predictions given that the estimated effect is generally smaller than the truth. The small magnitude of bias suggests that epidemiological findings are relatively robust against the exposure error. In practice, the use of ambient predictions with a finer spatial resolution will result in smaller bias. https://doi.org/10.1289/EHP10389.