Establishment of the Korea National Health and Nutrition Examination Survey air pollution study dataset for the researchers on the health impact of ambient air pollution.

Myung-Jae Hwang,Hae-Kwan Cheong,Miryoung Yoon,Jong-Hun Kim,Youn-Seo Koo,Dae-Ryun Choi,Hui-Young Yun,Sungha Yun,Kyungwon Oh,Jisun Sung

doi:10.4178/epih.e2021015

Abstract

To provide a nationwide representative dataset for the study on health impact of air pollution, we combined the data from the Korea National Health and Nutrition Examination Survey with the daily air quality and weather data by matching the date of examination and the residential address of the participants. The database of meteorological factors and air quality as sources of exposure data were estimated using the Community Multiscale Air Quality model. The linkage dataset was merged by three ways; administrative district, si-gun-gu (city, county, and district), and geocode (in latitude and longitude coordinate units) based on the participants’ residential address, respectively. During the study period, the exposure dataset of 85,018 individuals (38,306 men and 46,712 women) whose examination dates were recorded were obtained. According to the definition of exposure period, the dataset was combined with the data on short-term, mid-term, and long-term exposure to air pollutants and the meteorological indices. Calculation of the daily merged dataset’s average air pollution linked by si-gun-gu and geocode units showed similar results. This study generated a daily average of meteorological indices and air pollution exposure dataset for all regions including rural and remote areas in Korea for 11 years. It is expected to provide a platform for the researchers studying the health impact of air pollution and climate change on the representative population and area, which may facilitate the establishment of local health care plans by understanding the residents’ health status at the local as well as national level.

Highlights

Air pollution, which annually causes over 4.2 million premature deaths worldwide, has emerged as one of the major public health hazards [1]
Studies on the health impact of ambient air pollution has been reported since the late 1990s, but most of them were conducted mainly in Seoul or metropolitan areas; there is a lack of nationwide research evaluating the health impact of air pollution, especially in the rural areas
KNHANES provides diverse indices related to healthcare by conducting an annual survey and national health indices by conducting a precise examination survey. We linked these domestic representative survey data and air pollution exposure data and prepared a data profile so that epidemiological researchers can utilize the information more efficiently. If these data can be applied in various sectors through this data profile, they will serve as a theoretical ground for establishing and practicing policies related to hazardous air pollution in the local government level by allowing them to conduct comprehensive research on the health impact, reflecting the local demographic and socioeconomic features

Summary

INTRODUCTION

These DBs have strengths in their nationwide coverage and providing diverse information on the regional differences over decades It have diverse information on health and socioeconomic status of the population, and implemented with strict quality control system, meeting the global standard as a data source for conducting an outstanding health research. The institution can provide the dataset to individual researchers without having access to the personal information or spatiotemporal information of the individual participants during the conduct of epidemiological research This project has established environmental hazard factor DB including air pollution DB in systematic methods and created a linkage DB with KNHANES.

Ethics statement

DATA ACCESSIBILITY