Impact of fine particulate matters on the daily number of emergency visits and outpatient visits of 5 hospitals in Beijing, Shanghai, and Guangzhou, 2013-2015

Abstract

Objective: To explore the effect of fine particulate matters (PM(2.5)) exposure on emergency visits and outpatient visits of 5 hospitals in Beijing, Shanghai and Guangzhou from 2013 to 2015. Methods: Using convenient sampling method, 5 general hospitals in Beijing, Shanghai and Guangzhou were selected which included Beijing hospital, China-Japan friendship hospital, Xinhua hospital affiliated to Shanghai jiaotong University School of Medicine, the liwan hospital of the third affiliated hospital and the first affiliated hospital of Guangzhou Medical University. The emergency and outpatient data, air pollution monitoring data and meteorological data were collected from January 1, 2013 to December 31, 2015. A generalized additive model was used to analyze the effect of PM(2.5) exposure on daily hospital emergency and outpatient visits, and Meta analysis was used to obtain the combined effect value. Results: The number of emergency and outpatient visits of 5 hospitals was 1 378 501 and 18 139 779 in total, respectively. The mean±SD of PM(2.5) exposures in Beijing hospital, China-Japan friendship hospital, Xinhua hospital affiliated to Shanghai jiaotong University School of Medicine, the liwan hospital of the third affiliated hospital and the first affiliated hospital of Guangzhou Medical University were (81.8±68.7), (83.2±69.7), (54.4±34.1), (43.5±24.8) μg/m(3), respectively. Results of single pollutant model analysis showed that 0-1 day lag concentrations of PM(2.5) had the largest effect on emergency visits and outpatient visits. For a 10 μg/m(3) increase of PM(2).5 concentration, excess risk (ER) (95%CI) of emergency and outpatient visits was 0.56% (0.14%, 0.99%) and0.63% (0.07%, 1.19%), respectively. After adjusting for O(3), NO(2), SO(2), and CO, for a 10 μg/m(3) increase of PM(2.5) concentrations, the ER (95%CI) of emergency visits was 0.50% (0.10%, 0.90%), 0.34% (-0.02%, 0.69%), 0.36% (0.02%, 0.69%) and 0.56% (0.10%, 1.03%), respectively and the ER (95% CI) of outpatient visits was 0.65% (0.08%, 1.21%), 0.29% (-0.17%, 0.75%), 0.48% (-0.06%, 1.03%) and 0.48%(-0.02%, 0.99%), respectively. Conclusion: Our results suggested that PM(2.5) exposure can increase emergency and outpatient visits of 5 hospitals in Beijing, Shanghai and Guangzhou.