The short-term effects of air pollution on respiratory diseases and lung cancer mortality in Hefei: A time-series analysis

• Published in: Respiratory medicine Vol. 146; pp. 57 - 65
• Main Authors: Zhu, Furong, Ding, Rui, Lei, Ruoqian, Cheng, Han, Liu, Jie, Shen, Chaowei, Zhang, Chao, Xu, Yachun, Xiao, Changchun, Li, Xiaoru, Zhang, Junqing, Cao, Jiyu
• Format: Journal Article
• Language: English
• Published: England Elsevier Ltd 01.01.2019; Elsevier Limited
• Subjects: Air pollutants; Air Pollutants - adverse effects; Air pollution; China - epidemiology; Disease; Female; Generalized additive model; Humans; Humidity; Lung cancer; Lung diseases; Lung Neoplasms - chemically induced; Lung Neoplasms - mortality; Male; Mortality; Nitrogen dioxide; Outdoor air quality; Particulate Matter - adverse effects; Pollutants; Respiratory disease; Respiratory diseases; Respiratory system; Respiratory Tract Diseases - chemically induced; Respiratory Tract Diseases - mortality; Sex Factors; Short term; Statistical analysis; Sulfur Dioxide - adverse effects; Wind; China; Air pollutants; Respiratory disease; Generalized additive model; Lung cancer; Mortality
• ISSN: 0954-6111; 1532-3064; 1532-3064
• DOI: 10.1016/j.rmed.2018.11.019

Accumulating evidence has shown the effects of air pollution on respiratory disease and lung cancer mortality, but the evidence is still inconclusive to date. We conducted a time-series analysis, which included 10388 subjects, to assess the short-term effects of air pollution on respiratory disease and lung cancer mortality in Hefei, China, from 2009 to 2015. The mean concentrations of pollutants (PM10, NO2 and SO2) were 106.35, 30.40, and 20.66 μg/m3, respectively, during the study period. An increase of 10 μg/m3 in SO2, NO2, and PM10 was associated with 7.69% (95%CI: 3.41%–12.15%), 4.38% (95%CI: 1.33%–7.53%), and 1.55% (95%CI: 0.80%–2.30%) increase of respiratory diseases mortality, respectively. In contrast, lung cancer mortality was only significantly associated with SO2 level. Subgroup analyses showed that female in respiratory disease patients were more sensitive to air pollution than male. Studies about seasonality of pollutants on respiratory and lung cancer mortality were inconsistent. Further analyses with multiple-pollutant model showed that the effects of pollutants were generally decreased after the other pollutants were adjusted, except the effects of SO2 on lung cancer. These findings demonstrated that air pollution could evidently increase the respiratory disease and lung cancer mortality. [Display omitted] •Observed the short-term effects of air pollutants with lung cancer mortality.•SO2 demonstrated remarkable effects on mortality.•Female were more sensitive to respiratory mortality risk than male.