Air pollution and hospital outpatient visits for conjunctivitis: a time-series analysis in Tai’an, China

• Published in: Environmental science and pollution research international 2021-03, Vol.28 (12), p.15453-15461
• Main Authors: Chen, Renchao, Yang, Jun, Chen, Di, Liu, Wen-jing, Zhang, Chunlin, Wang, Hao, Li, Bixia, Xiong, Peng, Wang, Boguang, Wang, Yi, Li, Shanshan, Guo, Yuming
• Format: Article
• Language: English
• Subjects: Aged; Air Pollutants - analysis; Air pollution; Air Pollution - analysis; Air pollution effects; Aquatic Pollution; Atmospheric Protection/Air Quality Control/Air Pollution; China - epidemiology; Conjunctivitis; Conjunctivitis - chemically induced; Conjunctivitis - epidemiology; Earth and Environmental Science; Ecotoxicology; Environment; Environmental Chemistry; Environmental Health; Environmental science; Female; Health problems; Hospitals; Humans; Male; Meteorological data; Nitrogen dioxide; Outpatients; Particulate matter; Particulate Matter - analysis; Poisson distribution; Pollutants; Quality of Life; Research Article; Sex differences; Subpopulations; Sulfur dioxide; Time series; Waste Water Technology; Water Management; Water Pollution Control; Weather
• ISSN: 0944-1344; 1614-7499
• DOI: 10.1007/s11356-020-11762-4

Conjunctivitis is one of the most common eye-related health problems and significantly influences patients’ quality of life. Whether air pollution increased the risks of conjunctivitis is still unclear. Daily counts of outpatient visits for conjunctivitis, air pollution, and meteorological data during January 1, 2015-December 31, 2019 were collected from Tai’an, China. Generalized additive model with Poisson distribution was used to estimate the relationship between air pollution and visits for conjunctivitis, after controlling for the long-term and seasonal trends, weather variables, and day of the week. The effect of air pollution on visits for conjunctivitis was generally acute and significant at the current day and disappeared after 2 days. The relative risk of conjunctivitis visits associated with per 10 μg/m 3 increases in PM 2.5 , PM 10 , SO 2 , and NO 2 at lag 0-2 days was 1.006 (95% CI: 1.001-1.011), 1.003 (95% CI: 1.000-1.0107), 1.023 (95% CI: 1.009-1.037), and 1.025 (95% CI: 1.010-1.040), respectively. The impact of air pollution on visits for conjunctivitis varied greatly by individual characteristics. The impact of NO 2 was higher in males than in females, with the opposite trend for SO 2 and PM 2.5 . Effect estimates of air pollutants were higher among return visits for conjunctivitis, the elderly, and white-collar workers. Our study highlights that the vulnerable subpopulations should pay more attention to protect themselves from air pollution.