Abstract
Few studies have been conducted on the effect of air pollution on morbidity in Latin America. This study analyzed the effects of air pollution on respiratory and circulatory morbidity in four major cities in Colombia. An ecological time-series analysis was conducted with pollution data from air quality monitoring networks and information on emergency department visits between 2011 and 2014. Daily 24-h averages were calculated for NO2, PM10, PM2.5, and SO2 as well as 8-h averages for CO and O3. Separate time-series were constructed by disease group and pollutant. Conditional negative binomial regression models were used with average population effects. Effects were calculated for the same day and were adjusted for weather conditions, age groups, and their interactions. The results showed that effects of some of the pollutants differed among the cities. For NO2, PM10, and PM2.5, the multi-city models showed greater and statistically significant percentage increases in emergency department visits for respiratory diseases, particularly for the 5 to 9-year-old age group. These same pollutants also significantly affected the rate of emergency department visits for circulatory diseases, especially for the group of persons over 60 years of age.
Highlights
Environmental risk factors are responsible for roughly 23% of the global burden of disease [1].In the case of Colombia, this burden is estimated to be approximately 16% [2]
The positive association between pollutant concentrations PM10, PM2.5, SO2, and NO2 and the percentage increase in morbidities treated in emergency departments was evident even when the annual average pollutant concentrations were below the standards stipulated by Colombian legislation, and in the case of NO2 and SO2 below the World Health Organization’s (WHO) air quality guidelines [21,22]
That study reported an average change of 0.72% in the risk of death from cardiovascular diseases associated with PM10, and 2.44% from respiratory diseases such as chronic obstructive disease
Summary
Environmental risk factors are responsible for roughly 23% of the global burden of disease [1].In the case of Colombia, this burden is estimated to be approximately 16% [2]. Air pollution is the environmental factor that poses one of the largest environmental health problems worldwide. It has been defined as one of three priority environmental problems in Colombia [3,4], where non-transmissible chronic diseases represent the largest portion of the burden of disease: approximately 86% of the total years of life lost, adjusted by disability [5]. Several investigations that have been conducted recently have shown that air pollution affects the development of circulatory and respiratory diseases, with increased morbidity and mortality from these causes [6,7,8]. Very few studies have been conducted in Latin America on the effects of air pollution on health, with regard to morbidity [9]
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