PM[sub 10] ozone, and hospital admissions for the elderly in Minneapolis-St. Paul, Minnesota

Journal Article · · Archives of Environmental Health; (United States)

OSTI ID:6848783

Schwartz, J ^[1]

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1. Harvard School of Public Health, Boston, MA (United States)

Several recent studies have reported associations between airborne particles and/or ozone and hospital admissions for respiratory disease. PM[sub 10] has rarely been used as the particle exposure measure, however. This study examined whether such an association could be seen in Minneapolis-St. Paul, Minnesota, which has daily monitoring data for PM[sub 10]. Data on hospital admissions in persons aged 65 y and older were obtained from Medicare records for the years 1986 through 1989. Daily counts of admissions, by admit date, were computed for pneumonia (ICD9 480-487) and chronic obstructive pulmonary disease (COPD) (ICD9 490-496). Classification was by discharge diagnosis. Daily air pollution data from all monitoring stations for ozone and PM[sub 10] in Minneapolis-St. Paul were obtained, and the daily average for each pollutant was computed. An average of approximately six pneumonia admissions and two admissions for chronic obstructive pulmonary disease occurred each day. Poisson regression analysis was used to control for time trends, seasonal fluctuations, and weather. PM[sub 10] was a risk factor for pneumonia admissions (relative risk [RR] = 1.17, 95% confidence interval [CI] = 1.33-1.02) and COPD admissions (RR = 1.57, 95% CI = 2.06-1.20). Ozone was also associated with pneumonia admissions (RR = 1.15, 95% CI = 1.36-0.97). The relative risks are for an increase of 100 [mu]g/m[sup 3] in daily PM[sub 10] and 50 ppb in daily ozone concentration. Several alternative methods for controlling for seasonal patterns and weather were used, including nonparametric regression techniques. The results were not sensitive to the methods. When days exceeding the National Ambient Air Quality Standard for either pollutant were excluded, the association remained for both pneumonia (RR = 1.18, 95% CI = 1.34-1.03 for PM[sub 10] and RR = 1.18, 95% CI = 1.41-0.99 for ozone) and COPD (RR = 1.54, 95% CI = 2.06-1.16 for PM[sub 10]). 48 refs., 6 figs., 5 tabs.

• OSTI ID: 6848783
• Journal Information: Archives of Environmental Health; (United States), Journal Name: Archives of Environmental Health; (United States) Vol. 49:5; ISSN 0003-9896; ISSN AEHLAU
• Country of Publication: United States
• Language: English

Related Subjects

54 ENVIRONMENTAL SCIENCES
540120 -- Environment
Atmospheric-- Chemicals Monitoring & Transport-- (1990-)
552000 -- Public Health
560300* -- Chemicals Metabolism & Toxicology
63 RADIATION, THERMAL, AND OTHER ENVIRON. POLLUTANT EFFECTS ON LIVING ORGS. AND BIOL. MAT.
99 GENERAL AND MISCELLANEOUS
ADULTS
AGE GROUPS
AGED ADULTS
AIR POLLUTION
AIR QUALITY
BIOLOGICAL EFFECTS
CORRELATIONS
DISEASE INCIDENCE
DISEASES
ELDERLY PEOPLE
ENVIRONMENTAL QUALITY
HUMAN POPULATIONS
MATHEMATICS
MINORITY GROUPS
OZONE
PARTICLES
PARTICULATES
PNEUMONIA
POLLUTION
POPULATIONS
REGRESSION ANALYSIS
RESPIRATORY SYSTEM DISEASES
RISK ASSESSMENT
STATISTICS
TOTAL SUSPENDED PARTICULATES