The association of short-term effects of air pollution and sleep disorders among elderly residents in China

Abstract

Sleep disorders, oftentimes co-occurring with other mental and neurological disorders in the elderly, have been previously linked to short-term exposures to air pollution. Here we assessed such associations among 395,651 elderly Chinese in Ningbo, China where air pollution exposures are high and the proportion of elderly in the population is growing. We utilized a regional health information database in China (2008–2017) that collected information on hospital visits for sleep disorders among the elderly (age 60+). Measures of daily air pollution concentrations including nitrogen dioxide (NO2), sulfur dioxide (SO2), ozone (O3), inhalable particles (PM10), and ambient fine particulate matter (PM2.5) were generated from seven environmental air quality monitoring sites in the study area. We used a generalized additive model to evaluate the associations between hospital visits for sleep disorders and short-term air pollution exposures for up to 7 days prior to a hospital visit. Short-term exposure to multiple air pollutants was associated with hospital visits for sleep disorders in an elderly population; with the strongest associations during 2–3 days prior to a clinic visits for traffic-related pollutants including air quality index (AQI), PM2.5, PM10, and NO2 and for SO2 and O3 for 5 days prior to the visits. Our study based on large health care record system suggested that short-term air pollution exposures are associated with sleep disorders in the elderly. Considering the individual covariates that could not be adjusted in time-series analyses, future studies with individual level data and an ability to evaluate the severity of sleep disorders and their relation to mental and physical health in general and air pollution are needed. An aging population with increasing health problems and the frequency of high and very high air pollution events in China make our findings very health policy relevant.