Association between short-term exposure to ambient air pollution and upper respiratory tract infection in Kunshan.

The health effects of air pollution have become a major public health problem. Studies on the relationship between short-term exposure to air pollutants and upper respiratory tract infection (URTI) related clinic visits and expenditures were scarce. From January 1, 2019, to December 31, 2021, we included all the URTI cases that turned to 11 public hospitals in Kunshan, and summarized individual medical cost. Daily meteorological factors and 24-h mean concentrations of four common air pollutants, including particulate matter with an aerodynamic diameter less than 2.5 µm (PM2.5) and 10 µm (PM10), sulfur dioxide (SO2), and nitrogen dioxide (NO2), were consecutively recorded. Generalized additive regression model was adopted to quantify the associations between each air pollutant and the daily clinic visits of URTI cases. We further calculated attributable number (AN) and attributable fraction, and performed sensitivity analysis by gender, age, and season. A total of 934,180 cases were retrieved during the study period. PM2.5, PM10, SO2, and NO2 showed significant associations with hospital visits and expenditures due to URTI. Relative risks for them were 1.065 (95% confidence interval [CI] 1.055, 1.076), 1.045 (95% CI 1.037, 1.052), 1.098 (95% CI 1.038, 1.163), and 1.098 (95% CI 1.085, 1.111) on lag 0-5 days, respectively. Thirty-one thousand four hundred fifty-five (95% CI 27,457, 35,436) cases could be ascribed to increased NO2 and accounted for 3.37% (95% CI 2.94%, 3.79%) of all clinic visits. Sensitivity analyses indicated that the effects of air pollution were generally consistent for male and female. PM2.5, PM10, and NO2 had stronger associations among people aged ≤ 18 years, followed by those aged 19-64 years and ≥ 65 years. The association strengths of air pollution varied seasonally. Short-term exposure to ambient air pollutants had significant associations with clinic visits and expenditures owing to URTI. Children and adolescents appeared to be more susceptible to adverse health effects of air pollution. NO2 may be a priority when formulating pollution control measures.

Survival analysis of 15,402 pneumoconiosis cases in Jiangsu Province of China from 1961 to 2019.

BACKGROUND: Pneumoconiosis has been reported as one of the major global burdens of occupational health-related diseases. The global prevalence had increased since 1990. Prevention and treatment of pneumoconiosis in the project of occupational health have been a priority of the action plan of Healthy China 2030. METHODS: A life table was used to explore the survival and fatality rate of pneumoconiosis. Using Cox proportional hazards regression model, the factors of survival time were investigated. RESULTS: A total of 15,402 cases had several species of pneumoconiosis, including silicosis, coal worker pneumoconiosis and welder pneumoconiosis that accounted for 68.49%, 19.41% and 3.84% of total pneumoconiosis, respectively. Eighty percent of cases were initially diagnosed at stage I, 15.5% at stage II, and 4.5% at stage III. The overall average survival time was determined as 14.74±9.57 years, the life expectancy reached 34.324 years in total, and the total mortality of patients suffering from pneumoconiosis was 19.89%. The average dust exposure period, average survival time and life expectancy progressively decreased with the stage upgrade, whereas the age of onset and mortality rate tended to increase. Dust exposure years, initially diagnosed at stage II or stage III, stage I upgrade to stage II, stage I upgrade to stage III and low economic level were found as important risk factors for the survival of patients suffering from pneumoconiosis. CONCLUSIONS: Stage II and stage III of pneumoconiosis may have a direct effect on the survival time of patients suffering from pneumoconiosis. The prevention and delay of the progression of pneumoconiosis are critical to prolonging the survival time of cases.

A score method for comparison of partial genomic regions in their representatives of full-length genome of hepatitis E virus for genotyping.

In this article, a statistical score method for comparison of partial genomic regions in their representatives of full-length genome of hepatitis E virus (HEV) for genotyping was developed. The critical values of the statistics for hypothesis testing were generated through Monte Carlo simulations. It was found that fragment III might be a statistically representative region for the whole genome of HEV for genotyping. Based on both the full-length sequence and fragment III, the same four genotypes were identified by the subsequent phylogenetic analysis, and similar ranges of mean nucleotide difference were also observed to differentiate HEV sequences at the three levels genotype, subtype and isolate, which further verified the statistical results. It may be concluded from this study that the score method is effective for comparing partial genomic regions with full-length genome of HEV strains for genotyping.