Long-Term Exposure to Fine and Coarse Particulate Matter and COVID-19 Incidence and Mortality Rate in Chile during 2020.

Macarena Valdés Salgado,Pamela Smith,Nicolás Huneeus,Mariel A Opazo

doi:10.3390/ijerph18147409

Abstract

Background: Several countries have documented the relationship between long-term exposure to air pollutants and epidemiological indicators of the COVID-19 pandemic, such as incidence and mortality. This study aims to explore the association between air pollutants, such as PM2.5 and PM10, and the incidence and mortality rates of COVID-19 during 2020. Methods: The incidence and mortality rates were estimated using the COVID-19 cases and deaths from the Chilean Ministry of Science, and the population size was obtained from the Chilean Institute of Statistics. A chemistry transport model was used to estimate the annual mean surface concentration of PM2.5 and PM10 in a period before the current pandemic. Negative binomial regressions were used to associate the epidemiological information with pollutant concentrations while considering demographic and social confounders. Results: For each microgram per cubic meter, the incidence rate increased by 1.3% regarding PM2.5 and 0.9% regarding PM10. There was no statistically significant relationship between the COVID-19 mortality rate and PM2.5 or PM10. Conclusions: The adjusted regression models showed that the COVID-19 incidence rate was significantly associated with chronic exposure to PM2.5 and PM10, even after adjusting for other variables.

Highlights

Since the first COVID-19 case in Wuhan, China, the pandemic caused by SARS-CoV-2 has caused more than 162 million cases and 3.3 million deaths globally
The objective of this research is to study the association between chronic exposure to PM2.5 and PM10 and health indicators of COVID-19, such as the incidence and mortality rate, at the communal level while taking into account the population, housing, and climate characteristics of each commune
We found an association between chronic exposures to particulate matter, coarse and fine, and mortality rate

Summary

Introduction

Since the first COVID-19 case in Wuhan, China, the pandemic caused by SARS-CoV-2 has caused more than 162 million cases and 3.3 million deaths globally. May 2021, more than 1,500,000 cases and around 172,000 deaths occurred in Chile [1]. A wide variety of manifestations have been reported among people with COVID-19, ranging from asymptomatic cases to mild symptoms and even severe illness and death [2]. Epidemiological indicators, such as incidence, mortality, or case fatality rate, vary among countries [3]. This variability has motivated research on risk factors from the individual to the environmental level

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