Short term effects of air pollution on hospital admission for respiratory diseases among the pediatric and elderly populations, a time-series study

Abstract

Background: PM2.5 can cause a variety of diseases, such as respiratory diseases and cardiovascular diseases. Although studies have been conducted between hospital admission due to ultra-fine dust and respiratory diseases in Korea, there are limitations in applying the results to Korea as it wasis performed limitedly to some regions.Methods: National Health Insurance by Uusing the Health Insurance Data Sharing Service, among the registered persons to the National Health Insurance in 7 large cities from January 1, 2008 to December 31, 2016, tThe number of patients hospitalized for COPD, asthma, and total respiratory disease was obtained. The air pollution information was used for PM2.5 concentrations estimated by chemical transport model. Using the generalized additive model, time series analysis was carried out between hospital admission for air pollutants and respiratory diseases in each of the 7 cities, and the results of each cities were analyzed.Results: Ultrafine dust on the day was significantly associated with COPD and total respiratory disease in the pediatric population, and asthma in the elderly population.Conclusions: There is a significant association between ultrafine dust exposure and respiratory disease in the pediatric and elderly populations in seven large cities in Korea. In the future, it isexpected that research will be conducted to identify factors that explain the difference in the size of associations between cities.Keywords: pm 2.5; respiratory disease; asthma; chronic obstructive pulmonary disease; National Health Insurance data