The role of chronic hypoxemia and systemic inflammation in attentional impairment among miners with COPD of occupational origin

Е.Ж. Отаров, Zhanbol Sabirov, Mikhail Russyayev, Alexey Alexeyev, Aigul Amanbekova, Гребенева Ольга Васильевна, Sayagul A. Kairgeldina, Марал Б. Отарбаева, Madina B. Baurzhan, А.Ж. Шадетова

4 more authors

Nazgul Izdenova, Dina Rybalkina, Didar Okasov, Samal Kokkuzova

BMC Pulmonary Medicine, 2026

Full text Open access: Gold Metadata (CSL-JSON)
DOI 10.1186/s12890-026-04812-z
Data confidence 70 medium
How this score is calculated

It is built from checkable properties of the record itself: whether the article has a DOI, how many independent sources confirmed its data, whether the required fields are filled in, and how recent the latest confirmation is. Disagreement between sources and a missing identifier lower it. A value of 80 or above means the record was published without further checking; 60 to 79 means it is published at reduced confidence, with a manual check advisable. A record verified by an editor by hand is never pushed below 90 by a recalculation. This scores our data about the article, not the article itself.

Abstract

Abstract Background The systemic manifestations of chronic obstructive pulmonary disease (COPD) are well established, but associations among systemic inflammation, pulmonary function, arterial oxygenation, and attention remain insufficiently characterized in coal miners. Methods This comparative cross-sectional study included 180 male underground coal miners: 90 with occupational COPD and 90 coal-dust-exposed miners without COPD. COPD was staged as GOLD 1–4; all COPD participants had a mixed chronic bronchitic–emphysematous phenotype, and pneumoconiosis and other interstitial lung diseases were excluded radiologically. CRP, total cholesterol, post-bronchodilator FEV₁, PaO₂, and selective attention using the Münsterberg test were assessed. Correlations were examined by group, and adjusted regression, hypoxemia-stratified, and exploratory ROC analyses were conducted within COPD. Results Compared with miners without COPD, the pooled COPD group had higher CRP (2.3 ± 2.5 vs. 0.9 ± 1.4 mg/L) and cholesterol (4.9 ± 0.9 vs. 4.4 ± 0.9 mmol/L), lower FEV₁ (56.0 ± 16.1% vs. 111.8 ± 13.9% predicted) and PaO₂ (64.3 ± 5.5 vs. 82.6 ± 5.2 mmHg; all P < 0.001), and lower attention scores (15.6 ± 4.1 vs. 17.3 ± 4.7 points; P = 0.007). Within COPD, attention correlated with PaO₂ (rₛ = 0.75; P < 0.00001), and participants with PaO₂ < 60 mmHg had lower scores than those with PaO₂ 60–79 mmHg (12.5 ± 3.4 vs. 16.4 ± 3.8; P < 0.001). PaO₂ was the only independently associated variable in the adjusted model (B = 0.528 points/mmHg; 95% CI, 0.406–0.650; P < 0.001). Exploratory discrimination was good (AUC = 0.878; 95% bootstrap CI, 0.762–0.961), but was not externally validated. Conclusions In this cross-sectional occupational sample, lower arterial oxygenation was the most consistent correlate of poorer selective attention among miners with occupational COPD. The observed relationships with CRP, cholesterol, airflow obstruction, and work experience are compatible with the proposed occupational–inflammatory–respiratory framework-decreased attention, but do not establish temporal sequence, mediation, or causality.