Association between sulfur dioxide air pollution and daily hospital emergency and outpatient visits: a multi-city time-series study

ZHOU Lu; KAN Hai-dong; CHEN Ren-jie

doi:10.16462/j.cnki.zhjbkz.2021.10.008

Volume 25 Issue 10

Nov. 2021

Turn off MathJax

Article Contents

Article Navigation > CHINESE JOURNAL OF DISEASE CONTROL & PREVENTION > 2021 > 25(10): 1159-1163

ZHOU Lu, KAN Hai-dong, CHEN Ren-jie. Association between sulfur dioxide air pollution and daily hospital emergency and outpatient visits: a multi-city time-series study[J]. CHINESE JOURNAL OF DISEASE CONTROL & PREVENTION, 2021, 25(10): 1159-1163. doi: 10.16462/j.cnki.zhjbkz.2021.10.008

Citation:

ZHOU Lu, KAN Hai-dong, CHEN Ren-jie. Association between sulfur dioxide air pollution and daily hospital emergency and outpatient visits: a multi-city time-series study[J]. CHINESE JOURNAL OF DISEASE CONTROL & PREVENTION, 2021, 25(10): 1159-1163. doi: 10.16462/j.cnki.zhjbkz.2021.10.008

Citation:

ZHOU Lu, KAN Hai-dong, CHEN Ren-jie. Association between sulfur dioxide air pollution and daily hospital emergency and outpatient visits: a multi-city time-series study[J]. CHINESE JOURNAL OF DISEASE CONTROL & PREVENTION, 2021, 25(10): 1159-1163. doi: 10.16462/j.cnki.zhjbkz.2021.10.008

PDF( 14240 KB)

Association between sulfur dioxide air pollution and daily hospital emergency and outpatient visits: a multi-city time-series study

doi: 10.16462/j.cnki.zhjbkz.2021.10.008

Department of Environmental Health, School of Public Health, Fudan University, Shanghai 200032, China

Funds:

National Natural Science Foundation of China 92043301

More Information

Corresponding author: CHEN Ren-jie, E-mail: chenrenjie@fudan.edu.cn
Received Date: 2021-06-01
Rev Recd Date: 2021-08-31

Available Online: 2021-11-17

Publish Date: 2021-10-10

Abstract

Abstract

Objective To assess the effects of sulfur dioxide (SO₂) air pollution on daily hospital emergency and outpatient visits in Beijing, Xian, Wuhan, and Guangzhou. Methods The daily data on emergency and outpatient visits, ambient air pollutants, and weather conditions of 5 hospitals in Beijing, Xian, Wuhan, and Guangzhou were collected from January 1, 2013 to December 31, 2015. Generalized additive models were applied to analyze the effects of SO₂ exposure on daily hospital emergency and outpatient visits. Random-effects meta-analyses were used to obtain the combined effect values. Results The included emergency and outpatient visits of 5 hospitals were 411 277 and 4 935 282, respectively. The average annual SO₂ levels of Beijing, Xian, Wuhan, and Guangzhou were 16.5, 30.1, 30.5, and 15.0 μg/m³, respectively. The lag effects of SO₂ exposure on emergency and outpatient visits were observed in our study. For the single-day lag periods, the estimated effect of the same-day exposure was the largest. Afterward, the effect decreased and lost statistical significance in the lag 3 d. Our results showed that the lag 0-2 d concentrations of SO₂ had the largest effect on emergency and outpatient visits. And a 10 μg/m³ increment in SO₂ concentrations was associated with excess risks of 3.44% (95% CI: 1.65%-5.26%) and 1.32% (95% CI: 0.45%-2.20%) for daily emergency and outpatient visits, respectively. The exposure-response curves between SO₂ exposure and daily emergency and outpatient visits were nearly linear, but the curves turned to level off at higher concentrations. Besides, SO₂-related population attributable fractions were 3.33% (95% CI: 1.63%-4.99%) and 1.31% (95% CI: 0.45%-2.16%) for daily emergency and outpatient visits, respectively. Conclusions Short-term exposure to SO₂ can increase the risk of hospital emergency and outpatient visits in Chinese cities, suggesting that the prevention and control of SO₂ pollution should be further strengthened, and the corresponding air pollution standard should be tightened.
- Sulfur dioxide,
- Time-series study,
- Emergency visits,
- Outpatient visits

FullText(HTML)

References(11)

References

[1]	Philip S, Martin RV, Van Donkelaar A, et al. Global chemical composition of ambient fine particulate matter for exposure assessment[J]. Environ Sci Technol, 2014, 48(22): 13060-13068. DOI: 10.1021/es502965b.
[2]	Atkinson RW, Cohen A, Mehta S, et al. Systematic review and meta-analysis of epidemiological time-series studies on outdoor air pollution and health in Asia[J]. Air Qual Atmos Health, 2011, 5(4): 383-391. DOI: 10.1007/s11869-010-0123-2.
[3]	Orellano P, Reynoso J, Quaranta N. Short-term exposure to sulphur dioxide (SO₂) and all-cause and respiratory mortality: a systematic review and meta-analysis[J]. Environ Int, 2021, 150: 106434. DOI: 10.1016/j.envint.2021.106434.
[4]	Shah AS, Lee KK, McAllister DA, et al. Short term exposure to air pollution and stroke: systematic review and meta-analysis[J]. BMJ, 2015, 350: h1295. DOI: 10.1136/bmj.h1295.
[5]	Wang L, Liu C, Meng X, et al. Associations between short-term exposure to ambient sulfur dioxide and increased cause-specific mortality in 272 Chinese cities[J]. Environ Int, 2018, 117: 33-39. DOI: 10.1016/j.envint.2018.04.019.
[6]	World Health Organization. WHO air quality guidelines for particulate matter, ozone, nitrogen dioxide and sulfur dioxide: global update 2005: summary of risk assessment[M]. Geneva: WHO, 2006: 1-21.
[7]	Zhang Y, Wang SG, Ma YX, et al. Association between ambient air pollution and hospital emergency admissions for respiratory and cardiovascular diseases in Beijing: a time series study[J]. Biomed Environ Sci, 2015, 28(5): 352-363. DOI: 10.3967/bes2015.049.
[8]	Guo P, Feng W, Zheng M, et al. Short-term associations of ambient air pollution and cause-specific emergency department visits in Guangzhou, China[J]. Sci Total Environ, 2018, 613-614: 306-313. DOI: 10.1016/j.scitotenv.2017.09.102.
[9]	Ma Y, Zhao Y, Yang S, et al. Short-term effects of ambient air pollution on emergency room admissions due to cardiovascular causes in Beijing, China[J]. Environ Pollut, 2017, 230: 974-980. DOI: 10.1016/j.envpol.2017.06.104.
[10]	Liu Y, Chen S, Xu J, et al. The association between air pollution and outpatient and inpatient visits in Shenzhen, China[J]. Int J Environ Res Public Health, 2018, 15(2): 178. DOI: 10.3390/ijerph15020178.
[11]	Dominici F, Peng RD, Barr CD, et al. Protecting human health from air pollution: shifting from a single-pollutant to a multipollutant approach[J]. Epidemiology, 2010, 21(2): 187-194. DOI: 10.1097/EDE.0b013e3181cc86e8.