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Ambient fine particulate matter (PM2.5) exposure is a leading risk factor for non-communicable diseases (NCDs) globally. Yet gaps remain in understanding the disparities in PM2.5-related NCD burdens across population subgroups, especially in low- and middle-income countries like India.

Our findings underscore the need for equity-focused policies targeting vulnerable subgroups to reduce disparities in environmental health burdens in India.

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The authors acknowledge Demographic and Health Survey (DHS) programme for accessing the socio-demographic and health information from the National Family Health Survey (NFHS) database. The air pollution estimates of ambient PM2.5 has been used from our earlier work Katoch et al. (2023).

The work was supported by a research grant (001307) from the Clean Air Fund (CAF) and from the Indian Council of Medical Research (DDR/CAR-2024/00529) through a Centre for Advanced Research. DS acknowledged the financial support from the Council of Scientific and Industrial Research (CSIR, File number: 09/0086(12746)/2021-EMR-I), Government of India. SD acknowledged the Fellowship for the Vipula and Mahesh Chaturvedi Chair in Policy Studies.

Centre for Atmospheric Sciences, Indian Institute of Technology Delhi, New Delhi, India

Adjunct Faculty, Department of Health, Policy and Management, Korea University, Seoul, South Korea

SD and DS conceived the work, and DS performed the core analysis with the help of AK, FI, and SG. DS wrote the initial manuscript with key inputs from SD. SG provided additional comments and contributed to the final version of the manuscript.

Ethical approval was not required because this research did not involve human subjects. All methods were performed in accordance with the relevant guidelines and regulations.

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Sarkar, D., Kumar, A., Imam, F. et al. Disparity in non-communicable disease burden attributable to ambient PM2.5 exposure among adult population subgroups in India. J Expo Sci Environ Epidemiol (2026). https://doi.org/10.1038/s41370-026-00927-x

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