Unlabelled: STUDY OBJECTIVE AND SETTING: Particulate air pollution has a known negative effect on human respiratory health, often studied with hospital admissions, emergency room access, or mortality as health indicators. We evaluate respiratory drug dispensing data as health indicators for the effects of total suspended particles (TSP) air pollution in the city of Como (84,713 inhabitants).
Design: Weekly count of individual patients with respiratory drug dispensed (Cases) and weekly dispensed daily defined doses (DDD) of drugs were modelled with weekly air mean concentrations of TSP using a Poisson regression model adjusted for long-term trends, seasonal variations, calendar variations due to holidays, and weather.
Main Result: Relative risks (RR) were expressed for a variation from 10th to 90th percentile of TSP (29-92 microg/m3). Weekly aggregation was used in consideration of the complexity of drug dispensing data and potential biases of daily aggregation. For weekly mean concentrations of TSP, RR = 1.082 (95% Confidence level (CI) 1.002-1.169) for Cases and RR = 1.137 (95% CI 1.044-1.238) for DDD.
Conclusion: Our study concludes that both Cases and DDD of dispensed respiratory drugs could be useful for epidemiological surveillance of air pollutant health effects. Further investigation may routinely allow health and economics considerations, producing a stimulating new tool for health policy makers.
Download full-text PDF |
Source |
|---|---|
| http://dx.doi.org/10.1007/s10654-005-0243-4 | DOI Listing |
Publication Analysis
Top Keywords
Similar Publications
Epidemiological Features, Clinical Symptoms, and Environmental Risk Factors for Notifiable Japanese Encephalitis in Taiwan From 2008 to 2020: Retrospective Study.
JMIR Public Health Surveill
January 2025
School of Public Health, National Defense Medical Center, Taipei City, Taiwan.
Background: Japanese encephalitis (JE) is a zoonotic parasitic disease caused by the Japanese encephalitis virus (JEV), and may cause fever, nausea, headache, or meningitis. It is currently unclear whether the epidemiological characteristics of the JEV have been affected by the extreme climatic conditions that have been observed in recent years.
Objective: This study aimed to examine the epidemiological characteristics, trends, and potential risk factors of JE in Taiwan from 2008 to 2020.
Transforming CCTV cameras into NO sensors at city scale for adaptive policymaking.
Sci Rep
January 2025
The Alan Turing Institute, London, UK.
Air pollution in cities, especially NO, is linked to numerous health problems, ranging from mortality to mental health challenges and attention deficits in children. While cities globally have initiated policies to curtail emissions, real-time monitoring remains challenging due to limited environmental sensors and their inconsistent distribution. This gap hinders the creation of adaptive urban policies that respond to the sequence of events and daily activities affecting pollution in cities.
View Article and Find Full Text PDFUnder the background of climate change, the escalating air pollution and extreme weather events have been identified as risk factors for chronic respiratory diseases (CRD), causing serious public health burden worldwide. This review aims to summarize the effects of changed atmospheric environment caused by climate change on CRD. Results indicated an increased risk of CRD (mainly COPD, asthma) associated with environmental factors, such as air pollutants, adverse meteorological conditions, extreme temperatures, sandstorms, wildfire, and atmospheric allergens.
View Article and Find Full Text PDFA Comprehensive OBD Data Analysis Framework: Identification and Factor Analysis of High-Emission Heavy-Duty Vehicles.
Environ Pollut
January 2025
Tianjin Key Laboratory of Urban Transport Emission Research & State Environmental Protection Key Laboratory of Urban Ambient Air Particulate Matter Pollution Prevention and Control, College of Environmental Science and Engineering, Nankai University, Tianjin, 300071, China.
On-Board Diagnostic (OBD) systems enable real-time monitoring of NOx emissions from heavy-duty diesel vehicles (HDDVs). However, few studies have focused on the root cause analysis of these emissions using OBD data. To address this gap, this study proposes an integrated analysis framework for HDDV NOx emissions that combines data processing, high-emission vehicle identification, and emission cause analysis.
View Article and Find Full Text PDFAir pollution-related disease and economic burden in China, 1990-2050: A modelling study based on Global burden of disease.
Environ Int
January 2025
National Center for Chronic and Noncommunicable Disease Control and Prevention, Chinese Center for Disease Control and Prevention, Beijing, China. Electronic address:
The disease burden of air pollution (AP) has been well-documented, yet few studies have explored its economic burden. Retrieving disease burden data from the Global Burden of Diseases, Injuries, and Risk Factors Study (GBD) 2021, this study constructed a cost-of-illness (COI) model to estimate China's economic burden of AP in 1990 and 2021 and to identify national and provincial differences, then, an age-period-cohort (APC) model was adopted to estimate trends to 2050. Results demonstrated a serious load of AP, emphasizing the necessity for intervention.
View Article and Find Full Text PDFWant AI Summaries of new PubMed Abstracts delivered to your In-box?
Enter search terms and have AI summaries delivered each week - change queries or unsubscribe any time!