Correlation Analysis Between Six Air Pollutants and Emergency Visit Rate in Shandong, China

Abstract

Abstract Background Although air pollution has improved, instances of extreme weather pollution have been observed. Impacts of air pollution on the human body have become a significant focus of research. Purpose Previous research primarily focused on selecting specific pollutants as exposure factors or investigating the association with mortality. This study intends to examine the correlation between exposure to six national standard pollutants (sulfur dioxide, nitrogen dioxide, ozone, carbon monoxide, Particulate matter with particle size below 10 microns, Particulate matter with particle size below 2.5 microns) and visiting rate. The findings will provide valuable insights for optimizing hospital resource allocation based on air quality conditions. Method In this study, a generalized additive model based on Poisson distribution was employed and the full pollution model, single pollution lag model, and gender-stratified single pollution lag model were utilized to analyze the effects of six pollutants exposure on the visiting rate, delayed visiting rate and the male to female ratio. The study was conducted in Shandong Province, China. Result The exposure of PM10, PM2.5 and NO2 was positively correlated with the visiting rate of the population in Jinan, different departments have different sensitivity to pollutants. The exposure to all six pollutants exhibited a noticeable lag effect on the visiting rate in the hospital. However, the optimal lag period of pollutants varied across different departments and differed to some extent between different genders. In general, women were more sensitive to the effects of pollutant exposure, specifically to PM10, SO2, PM2.5, and NO2, than men.