Abstract
The health effects associated with fine particulate matter (PM2.5) have attracted considerable public attention in recent decades. It has been verified that PM2.5 can damage the respiratory and cardiovascular systems and cause various diseases. While the association between diseases and PM2.5 has been widely studied, this work aims to analyze the association between PM2.5 and hospital visit rates for respiratory diseases in Taiwan. To this end, a disease mapping model that considers spatial effects is applied to estimate the association. The results show that there is a positive association between hospital visit rates and the PM2.5 concentrations in the Taiwanese population in 2012 after controlling for other variables, such as smoking rates and the number of hospitals in each region. This finding indicates that control of PM2.5 could decrease hospital visit rates for respiratory diseases in Taiwan.
Highlights
Every day, hundreds of millions of people worldwide suffer from various respiratory diseases
It was evident that the hospital visit rates for respiratory diseases in most regions lied in the range of 0.1 to 0.4
To explore the spatial distributions of PM2.5 concentrations, smoking rates, the number of hospitals, and the hospital visit rates for respiratory diseases, we summarized the variable information of 349 third-level administrative regions into 22 second-level administrative regions in Taiwan
Summary
Hundreds of millions of people worldwide suffer from various respiratory diseases. According to Feldman and Richards (2018) [1], lower respiratory infections alone are the fifth leading cause of death worldwide. Scholars have identified certain causes of these diseases, such as genetic issues, infections, a nd smoking [2, 3]. Air pollution has adverse health effects on the respiratory system and, causes many respiratory diseases. A major health-damaging component of air pollution is fine particulate matter with a diameter less than 2.5 μm (PM2.5). These particles can penetrate the lungs and bloodstream unfiltered, causing respiratory diseases [6]
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