The life expectancy benefits on respiratory diseases gained by reducing the daily concentration of particulate matter to attain different air quality standard targets: findings from a 5-year time-series study in Tianjin, China.

Abstract

The short-term effects of particulate matter (PM) on years of life lost (YLL) have been confirmed by several studies; however, little attention has been paid to the effects of PM on life expectancy from respiratory diseases (RD), especially at the city level. A generalized additive model (GAM) was used to assess the associations between daily PM and YLL of the RD and chronic obstructive pulmonary diseases (COPD) in Tianjin from 2015 to 2019. Then the daily avoidable YLL, attributable fraction, and potential life expectancy benefits (PLEB) of RD and COPD by reducing the daily concentration of PM2.5 and PM10 to attain the Chinese and World Health Organization (WHO) air quality standard targets were estimated during 2015-2019. The stratified analyses by gender were also conducted. A total of 18279 RD and 7767 COPD deaths were included in this study. Per 10μg/m3 increments in PM2.5 and PM10 at lag1 were significantly associated with 0.83(95%CI: 0.11, 1.55) years and 0.57(95%CI: 0.06, 1.08) years increasing in YLL of total RD and 0.48 (95%CI: 0.07, 0.90) years and 0.30 (95%CI: 0.01, 0.60) years increasing in YLL of total COPD. If the daily PM2.5 and PM10 concentrations decreased to attain the Chinese and WHO air quality standard targets, 0.06-0.39years PLEB due to total RD and 0.08-0.53years PLEB due to COPD could be gained. And more PLEB on RD could be gained by decreasing the daily PM concentrations to attain the WHO air quality standard targets than that of attaining the Chinese air quality standard targets. These evidence-based findings emphasize the importance of the Chinese PM-related guideline updating and may have implications for PM-related policy-making.