Alleviating air pollutant-associated hypertension by potassium intake in Korean adults: a cross-sectional study from the 2012–2016 Korea National Health and Nutrition Examination Survey

Air pollution may increase the risk of hypertension (HTN) by increasing oxidative stress and inflammation, and reducing sodium excretion. Potassium intake may reduce the risk of HTN through sodium excretion and reduce inflammation and oxidative stress. This study is aimed at investigating the association between air pollutants and HTN and whether these associations differ based on the potassium intake data of Korean adults from the 2012–2016 Korean National Health and Nutrition Examination Survey (KNHANES). This cross-sectional study used data from KNHANES (2012–2016) combined with annual air pollutant data from the Ministry of Environment using administrative units. We included 15,373 adults who responded to the semi-food frequency questionnaire. Associations between ambient PM(10), SO(2), NO(2), CO, and O(3) with HTN according to potassium intake were assessed using the survey logistic regression model for complex samples analysis. After adjusting for potential covariates such as, age, sex, education level, smoking status, family income, alcohol consumption, body mass index (BMI), exercise status, and survey year, as the air pollutant score considering the five air pollutants increased (severe air pollution), the prevalence of HTN increased in a dose-dependent manner (p for trend < 0.001). Meanwhile, in the adults with higher potassium intake and who were exposed to lowest levels of air pollutants score (score = 0), the ORs of HTN were significantly lower (OR = 0.56, 95% CI: 0.32–0.97). In conclusion, our study suggests that exposure to air pollutants may increase the prevalence of HTN among Korean adults. However, high potassium intake may help prevent HTN caused by air pollutants.