Background: The widely used Air Quality Index (AQI) has been criticized due to its inaccuracy, leading to the development of the air quality health index (AQHI), an improvement on the AQI. However, there is currently no consensus on the most appropriate construction strategy for the AQHI.
Objectives: In this study, we aimed to evaluate the utility of AQHIs constructed by different models and health outcomes, and determine a better strategy.
Methods: Based on the daily time-series outpatient visits and hospital admissions from 299 hospitals (January 2016-December 2018), and mortality (January 2017-December 2019) in Guangzhou, China, we utilized cumulative risk index (CRI) method, Bayesian multi-pollutant weighted (BMW) model and standard method to construct AQHIs for different health outcomes. The effectiveness of AQHIs constructed by different strategies was evaluated by a two-stage validation analysis and examined their exposure-response relationships with the cause-specific morbidity and mortality.
Results: Validation by different models showed that AQHI constructed with the BMW model (BMW-AQHI) had the strongest association with the health outcome either in the total population or subpopulation among air quality indexes, followed by AQHI constructed with the CRI method (CRI-AQHI), then common AQHI and AQI. Further validation by different health outcomes showed that AQHI constructed with the risk of outpatient visits generally exhibited the highest utility in presenting mortality and morbidity, followed by AQHI constructed with the risk of hospitalizations, then mortality-based AQHI and AQI. The contributions of NO and O to the final AQHI were prominent, while the contribution of SO and PM were relatively small.
Conclusions: The BMW model is likely to be more effective for AQHI construction than CRI and standard methods. Based on the BMW model, the AQHI constructed with the outpatient data may be more effective in presenting short-term health risks associated with the co-exposure to air pollutants than the mortality-based AQHI and existing AQIs.
Download full-text PDF |
Source |
|---|---|
| http://dx.doi.org/10.1016/j.envres.2021.112397 | DOI Listing |
Publication Analysis
Top Keywords
Similar Publications
Development of the national Air Quality Health Index based on short-term effects of ambient air pollution on mortality in Thailand.
Chemosphere
February 2025
Department of Environmental Health Sciences, Faculty of Public Health, Mahidol University, Bangkok, Thailand; Center of Excellence on Environmental Health and Toxicology (EHT), Office of the Permanent Secretary (OPS), Ministry of Higher Education, Science, Research and Innovation (MHESI), Bangkok, Thailand. Electronic address:
Article Synopsis
- The Air Quality Health Index (AQHI) is a tool for communicating health risks from air pollution, considering multiple pollutants' combined effects.
- A study in Thailand aimed to create a national AQHI and evaluate if age- and sex-specific versions were needed, using data from 31 provinces between 2017 and 2020.
- Results showed that total and specific AQHIs had strong correlations with mortality risks, with AQHI being a more effective predictor of health risks compared to the traditional Air Quality Index (AQI).
Improving the construction and prediction strategy of the Air Quality Health Index (AQHI) using machine learning: A case study in Guangzhou, China.
Ecotoxicol Environ Saf
November 2024
Department of Preventive Medicine, School of Public Health, Guangzhou Medical University, Xinzao, Panyu District, Guangzhou 511436, China; Guangdong Provincial Key Laboratory of Major Obstetric Diseases, Guangdong Provincial Clinical Research Center for Obstetrics and Gynecology, The Third Affiliated Hospital of Guangzhou Medical University, Guangzhou, China. Electronic address:
Effectively capturing the risk of air pollution and informing residents is vital to public health. The widely used Air Quality Index (AQI) has been criticized for failing to accurately represent the non-threshold linear relationship between air pollution and health outcomes. Although the Air Quality Health Index (AQHI) was developed to address these limitations, it lacks comprehensive construction criteria.
View Article and Find Full Text PDFThe construction and validity assessment of the respiratory air quality health index (AQHI) based on the analytic hierarchy process in Tianjin, China.
BMC Public Health
October 2024
Tianjin Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, No. 6 Huayue Road, Hedong District, Tianjin, 300011, China.
Background: Air quality health index (AQHI), as a developed air quality risk communication tool, has been proved to be more accurate in predicting air quality related health risks than air quality index (AQI) by previous studies. However, the standard method to construct AQHI is summing the excess risks of single-pollutant models directly, which may ignore the joint effect of air pollutant mixtures.
Methods: In this study, a new method which could solve the aforementioned problem, Analytic hierarchy process (AHP), was introduced.
An Improved Air Health Index Based on Short-Term Cardiovascular Effects in Tianjin, China.
Int J Public Health
October 2024
Tianjin Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, Tianjin, China.
Objectives: To construct an improved air health index (AHI) based on cardiovascular years of life lost (YLL) in Tianjin and assess its utility.
Methods: We derived the exposure-response coefficients from time-series models and calculated the excess YLL (EYLL) for simultaneous exposure to air pollution and non-optimum temperature. The AHI was developed using the EYLL at the WHO 2021 Air Quality Guideline annual mean values and optimum temperature as a reference.
Air quality health index (AQHI) based on multiple air pollutants and mortality risks in Taiwan: Construction and validation.
Environ Res
August 2023
National Institute of Environmental Health Sciences, National Health Research Institutes, Miaoli, Taiwan; Department of Occupational Safety and Health, China Medical University, Taichung, Taiwan; Department of Safety, Health, and Environmental Engineering, National United University, Miaoli, Taiwan. Electronic address:
Article Synopsis
- The current air quality index (AQI) fails to account for the cumulative health risks of air pollution and has been criticized for its limitations.
- Researchers proposed a new air quality health index (AQHI) that measures daily pollution's impact on mortality, specifically for the elderly, using data from 72 townships in Taiwan.
- The AQHI showed significant improvements in predicting health risks compared to the AQI, indicating a stronger correlation with mortality and health issues related to air pollution.
Want 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!