Geographic information system-based mapping of air pollution & emergency room visits of patients for acute respiratory symptoms in Delhi, India (March 2018-February 2019)

Background & objectives: Studies assessing the spatial and temporal association of ambient air pollution with emergency room visits of patients having acute respiratory symptoms in Delhi are lacking. Therefore, the present study explored the relationship between spatio-temporal variation of particulate matter (PM)2.5 concentrations and air quality index (AQI) with emergency room (ER) visits of patients having acute respiratory symptoms in Delhi using the geographic information system (GIS) approach. Methods: The daily number of ER visits of patients having acute respiratory symptoms (less than or equal to two weeks) was recorded from the ER of four hospitals of Delhi from March 2018 to February 2019. Daily outdoor PM2.5 concentrations and air quality index (AQI) were obtained from the Delhi Pollution Control Committee. Spatial distribution of patients with acute respiratory symptoms visiting ER, PM2.5 concentrations and AQI were mapped for three seasons of Delhi using ArcGIS software. Results: Of the 70,594 patients screened from ER, 18,063 eligible patients were enrolled in the study. Winter days had poor AQI compared to moderate and satisfactory AQI during summer and monsoon days, respectively. None of the days reported good AQI (<50). During winters, an increase in acute respiratory ER visits of patients was associated with higher PM2.5 concentrations in the highly polluted northwest region of Delhi. In contrast, a lower number of acute respiratory ER visits of patients were seen from the ‘moderately polluted’ south-west region of Delhi with relatively lower PM2.5 concentrations. Interpretation & conclusions: Acute respiratory ER visits of patients were related to regional PM2.5 concentrations and AQI that differed during the three seasons of Delhi. The present study providessupport for identifying the hotspots and implementation of focused, intensive decentralized strategies to control ambient air pollution in worst-affected areas, in addition to the general city-wise strategies.

Effect of Air Pollution on Emergency Room Visits for Respiratory Diseases in Lanzhou / 中国医学科学院学报

Objective To explore the effect of air pollution on the number of emergency room visits for respiratory diseases in residents at different ages and its seasonal changes in Lanzhou,so as to provide a scientific basis for the early prevention of respiratory diseases in Lanzhou. Methods The daily number of emergency room visits for respiratory diseases in three class A hospitals in Lanzhou from January 1,2013 to December 31,2017,as well as the air pollutants and meteorological data of Lanzhou in the same period,was collected.After controlling the confounding factors including long-term trend of time,meteorological factors and day-of-week effect using a generalized additive model,we analyzed the relationships between air pollutants and the daily number of emergency room visits for respiratory diseases,and explored whether there was a lag effect of air pollutants.Results From 2013 to 2017,the emergency room visits for respiratory diseases in Lanzhou had a total number of 124 871,with an average of 69(1-367)visits per day.The single pollutant model showed that among the six conventional air pollutants monitored in Lanzhou,PM

Characteristics of Emergency Room Visits by Older Individuals in a Tertiary Government Hospital in Nueva Ecija

@#BACKGROUND: Older individuals are more likely to utilize emergency care services than younger individuals due to the complexity of their condition. The increase in the demand for health services may lead to ER congestion, which may affect the quality of care being rendered. To the best of our knowledge, studies investigating the common medical causes of ER visits among older individuals have not been done in the Philippines. OBJECTIVES: The study aimed to determine the characteristics of emergency room visits by older individuals in a tertiary government hospital in Nueva Ecija. METHODS: The study is a single-center, retrospective study conducted in a tertiary government hospital in Nueva Ecija. A total of 270 ER records of Internal Medicine patients aged 60 years old and above seen from June 2019 to September 2019 were included. Patients who absconded or were dead on arrival were excluded. Descriptive statistics were used for the demographic variables and the characteristics of the ER visits. RESULTS AND ANALYSIS: The mean age of older individuals included was 69.72 ± 7.62. The average length of stay in the ER was 3.74 ± 2.34 Hours. Majority of visits occurred during the PM shift and were urgent cases. Majority of the patients seen were self-referral and were discharged. Patients commonly presented with difficulty of breathing. Diseases of the respiratory and circulatory system predominated. Chronic obstructive pulmonary disease and pneumonia were the leading causes of ER visits. CONCLUSION: Diseases of the respiratory and cardiovascular systems remain to be the leading causes of ER visits among older individuals. COPD and pneumonia were the most common diagnoses identified. Factors associated with the increase in frequency of these preventable and treatable diseases should be investigated. Older individuals often seek consultation in the ER rather than a primary health care provider. Some of the cases can be managed on an ambulatory care basis.

A Meta-analysis on the relations between short-term exposure to PM2.5 and both mortality and related emergency visits in China / 中华流行病学杂志

Objective To carry out a quantitative estimate that related to the effects of shortterm exposure to PM2.5 on all-cause mortality and emergency visits in China by using the systematic review and Meta-analysis.Methods We selected all the studies published before March 2018 from China National Knowledge Infrastructure,Wanfang database,PubMed and EMBASE and data on relative risk (RR),excess risk (ER) and their 95％CIs:appeared in these papers were extracted.According to the differences in the size or direction (heterogeneity) of the results,we computed summary estimates of the effect values using a random-effect or fixed effect model.We also conducted the subgroup analysis and Meta-analysis to have assessed the selected studies for the evidence of study bias.Results A total of 33 original studies,indexed in databases,were identified.Among those studies,39 sets of data on mortality and 4 sets of data on emergency were valid to show that within the daily concentration range from 47.7 to 176.7 pg/m3,for 10 μg/m3 increases in PM2.5 concentrations,it would increase the daily numbers of deaths by 0.49％ (95％CI:0.39％-0.59％) and 0.30％ (95％CI:0.10％-0.51％) for all-cause deaths and all-cause emergency-room visits,respectively.For subgroup analysis,the combined effect of PM2.5 in causing short-term all-cause deaths in the northern areas (ER=0.42％,95％CI:0.30％-0.54％) seemed lower than that in the southern areas (ER=0.63％,95％CI:0.44％-0.82％).The combined effect of PM2.5 concentration below 75 μg/m3 (ER=0.50％,95％CI:0.37％-0.62％) was higher than that of PM25 concentration ≥75 μ g/m3 (ER=0.39％,95％ CI:0.26％-0.52％).Conclusion Within the concentration range from 47.7 to 176.7 μg/m3,short-term exposure to current level of PM2.5 might increase both the all-cause daily mortality and daily emergency visits in China.

A Meta-analysis on the relations between short-term exposure to PM2.5 and both mortality and related emergency visits in China / 中华流行病学杂志

Objective To carry out a quantitative estimate that related to the effects of shortterm exposure to PM2.5 on all-cause mortality and emergency visits in China by using the systematic review and Meta-analysis.Methods We selected all the studies published before March 2018 from China National Knowledge Infrastructure,Wanfang database,PubMed and EMBASE and data on relative risk (RR),excess risk (ER) and their 95％CIs:appeared in these papers were extracted.According to the differences in the size or direction (heterogeneity) of the results,we computed summary estimates of the effect values using a random-effect or fixed effect model.We also conducted the subgroup analysis and Meta-analysis to have assessed the selected studies for the evidence of study bias.Results A total of 33 original studies,indexed in databases,were identified.Among those studies,39 sets of data on mortality and 4 sets of data on emergency were valid to show that within the daily concentration range from 47.7 to 176.7 pg/m3,for 10 μg/m3 increases in PM2.5 concentrations,it would increase the daily numbers of deaths by 0.49％ (95％CI:0.39％-0.59％) and 0.30％ (95％CI:0.10％-0.51％) for all-cause deaths and all-cause emergency-room visits,respectively.For subgroup analysis,the combined effect of PM2.5 in causing short-term all-cause deaths in the northern areas (ER=0.42％,95％CI:0.30％-0.54％) seemed lower than that in the southern areas (ER=0.63％,95％CI:0.44％-0.82％).The combined effect of PM2.5 concentration below 75 μg/m3 (ER=0.50％,95％CI:0.37％-0.62％) was higher than that of PM25 concentration ≥75 μ g/m3 (ER=0.39％,95％ CI:0.26％-0.52％).Conclusion Within the concentration range from 47.7 to 176.7 μg/m3,short-term exposure to current level of PM2.5 might increase both the all-cause daily mortality and daily emergency visits in China.

Study of relationship between content of fine particulate matter in atmospheric and the number of emergency room visits with acute coronary syndrome / 中华急诊医学杂志

Objective To explore the relationship between content of fine particulate matter (PM2.5) in atmospheric and the number of emergency room (ER) visits with acute coronary syndrome (ACS).Methods Daily data of ER visits to Peking University Third Hospital for ACS was collected from December 1st,2013 to November 30th,2014.All patients were resident population of Haidian District,Beijing.The daily meteorological data and contents of air pollutants in Beijing were also collected in the same time period.Generalized Additive Model (GAM) was fitted to estimate the association between the ambient PM2.5 and the ER visits for ACS,under controlling for time trends,holiday effect,day of week effect and weather conditions.Results The annual average amount of PM2.5 was 85.44 μg/m3 over the study period.There were 619 cases with ACS as ER visits.PM2.5 was positive related with PM10,NO2 and SO2.The corresponding correlation coefficients were 0.87,0.48 and 0.67,respectively (P ＜ 0.05).But PM2.5 was negative related with mean temperature (r =-0.04,P ＜ 0.05).In the polluted model,there was positive association between PM2.5 and ER visits with ACS.When each increament in PM2.2 with 10 μg/m3,the relative risk strength of ER visits with ACS was 1.019 (95％ CI:1.000-1.038).PM2.5 concentrations had a delayed effect on the onset of ACS occurred on the next day.This lagged 1 day phenomenon showed the most significant influence of PM2.5 on ER visits for ACS.Conclusions The ambient concentrations of PM2.5 are positively associated with ER visits for ACS.And there is a lag effect.

The impact of air temperature variation on the visits to emergency room in Shanghai / 中华流行病学杂志

Objective To assess the association between air temperature and emergency room visits among patients covered by medical care program from ' third-grade' hospitals in Shanghai.Methods Generalized additive model (GAM) was used to analyze time series,and AR(P) was used to deal with auto correlation of time series.After controlling factors as both medium-term and long-term trends,day of the week,vocation,typical pneumonia and pollutants,the association between air temperature and emergency room visits in virtue of quadratic curve and differential coefficient principle were estimated.Results When air temperature was below 14.71℃,the increase of 95% confidence interval to relative risk in corresponding emergency room visits along with 1℃ increase of air temperature,was less than 1.However,when air temperature was above 19.59℃,the relative risk' s 95% confidence interval was greater than 1.When air temperature varied at the range of 14.71℃-19.59℃,the 95% confidence interval of the relative risk would include 1.Hence,air temperature range between 14.71℃-19.59℃,was called the optimum temperature range.Conclusion Our findings indicated that the current air temperature had an acute impact on the number of emergency room visits among patients covered by medical care program visiting those third grade hospitals in Shanghai.

Effect of air pollution on diabetes and cardiovascular diseases in São Paulo, Brazil

Type 2 diabetes increases the risk of cardiovascular mortality and these patients, even without previous myocardial infarction, run the risk of fatal coronary heart disease similar to non-diabetic patients surviving myocardial infarction. There is evidence showing that particulate matter air pollution is associated with increases in cardiopulmonary morbidity and mortality. The present study was carried out to evaluate the effect of diabetes mellitus on the association of air pollution with cardiovascular emergency room visits in a tertiary referral hospital in the city of São Paulo. Using a time-series approach, and adopting generalized linear Poisson regression models, we assessed the effect of daily variations in PM10, CO, NO2, SO2, and O3 on the daily number of emergency room visits for cardiovascular diseases in diabetic and non-diabetic patients from 2001 to 2003. A semi-parametric smoother (natural spline) was adopted to control long-term trends, linear term seasonal usage and weather variables. In this period, 45,000 cardiovascular emergency room visits were registered. The observed increase in interquartile range within the 2-day moving average of 8.0 µg/m³ SO2 was associated with 7.0 percent (95 percentCI: 4.0-11.0) and 20.0 percent (95 percentCI: 5.0-44.0) increases in cardiovascular disease emergency room visits by non-diabetic and diabetic groups, respectively. These data indicate that air pollution causes an increase of cardiovascular emergency room visits, and that diabetic patients are extremely susceptible to the adverse effects of air pollution on their health conditions.

Association of Maximum Temperature between Daily Hospital Emergency Visits for Cardiovascular and Cerebrovascular Diseases:a Case-Crossover Study / 环境与健康杂志

Objective To explore the association between the daily maximum temperature and hospital emergency visits for cardiovascular and cerebrovascular diseases ( ICD-10: I00～I99) in different seasons in Beijing, China. Methods The data of the daily hospital emergency visits for cardiovascular and cerebrovascular diseases (ICD-10: I00～I99) from a Level-3A hospital in Haidian district in Beijing during 2004-2006 and the corresponding meteorological, air pollution data were collected. The seasonal-stratified case-crossover design and Logistic multiple regression model was used for the data analysis. Results After adjusting the influence of relative humidity, wind speed and atmospheric pressure, for 1℃ increase in daily maximum temperature, the corresponding increase in the hospital emergency visits of the diseases was 17.3%(OR=1.173, 95%CI:1.149～1.197) and 4.2% (OR=1.042, 95%CI: 1.011～1.074) in spring and summer of the years, respectively (P0.05). Conclusion The increase of daily maximum temperature may be a risk factor for daily hospital emergency visits for cardiovascular and cerebrovascular diseases in spring and summer, however, it may be a preventive factor in autumn. The effects of air temperature on health should not be the same in seasons.