scholarly journals Effect of COVID-19-related Lockdown οn Hospital Admissions for Asthma and COPD Exacerbations: Associations with Air Pollution and Patient Characteristics

2021 ◽  
Author(s):  
Ioanna Sigala ◽  
Timoleon Giannakas ◽  
Vasileios Giannakoulis ◽  
Efthimios Zervas ◽  
Aikaterini Mprinia ◽  
...  
Keyword(s):  
Air Pollution ◽  
Respiratory Failure ◽  
Air Pollutants ◽  
Asthma Exacerbation ◽  
Hospital Admissions ◽  
Patient Characteristics ◽  
Blood Eosinophil ◽  
Copd Exacerbations ◽  
Hospitalization Rates ◽  
Acute Exacerbations

We conducted a retrospective observational study to assess the hospitalization rates for acute exacerbations of asthma and/or COPD during the first imposed lockdown in Athens, Greece. Patient characteristics and the concentration of eight air pollutants (namely, CO, NO, NO2, O3 PM2.5, PM10, SO2 and benzene) were considered. A total of 153 consecutive hospital admissions were studied. Reduced admissions occurred in the lockdown period when compared to the Pre-lockdown 2020 (p<0.001) or the Control 2019 (p=0.007) period. Furthermore, the concentration of 6/8 air pollutants positively correlated with weekly hospital admissions in 2020 and significantly decreased during the lockdown. Finally, admitted patients for asthma exacerbation during the lockdown were younger (p=0.046) and less frequently presented respiratory failure (p=0.038), whereas patients with COPD presented higher blood eosinophil percentage (p=0.017) and count (p=0.012). Overall, admissions for asthma and COPD exacerbations decreased during the lockdown. This might partially explained by reduction of air pollution during this period while medical care avoidance behavior, especially among elderly patients cannot be excluded. Our findings aid in understanding the untold impact of the pandemic on diseases beyond COVID-19, focusing on patients with obstructive diseases..

scholarly journals Effect of COVID-19-Related Lockdown οn Hospital Admissions for Asthma and COPD Exacerbations: Associations with Air Pollution and Patient Characteristics

2021 ◽  
Vol 11 (9) ◽  
pp. 867
Author(s):  
Ioanna Sigala ◽  
Timoleon Giannakas ◽  
Vassilis G. Giannakoulis ◽  
Efthimios Zervas ◽  
Aikaterini Brinia ◽  
...  
Keyword(s):  
Air Pollution ◽  
Particulate Matter ◽  
Air Pollutants ◽  
Hospital Admissions ◽  
Nitrogen Monoxide ◽  
Patient Characteristics ◽  
Chronic Obstructive ◽  
Blood Eosinophil ◽  
Obstructive Pulmonary Disease ◽  
Copd Exacerbations

We conducted a retrospective observational study to assess the hospitalization rates for acute exacerbations of asthma and COPD (chronic obstructive pulmonary disease) during the first imposed lockdown in Athens, Greece. Patient characteristics and the concentration of eight air pollutants [namely, NO (nitrogen monoxide), NO2 (nitrogen dioxide), CO (carbon monoxide), PM2.5 (particulate matter 2.5), PM10 (particulate matter 10), O3 (ozone), SO2 (sulfur dioxide) and benzene] were considered. A total of 153 consecutive hospital admissions were studied. Reduced admissions occurred in the Lockdown period compared to the Pre-lockdown 2020 (p < 0.001) or the Control 2019 (p = 0.007) period. Furthermore, the concentration of 6/8 air pollutants positively correlated with weekly hospital admissions in 2020 and significantly decreased during the lockdown. Finally, admitted patients for asthma exacerbation during the lockdown were younger (p = 0.046) and less frequently presented respiratory failure (p = 0.038), whereas patients with COPD presented higher blood eosinophil percentage (p = 0.017) and count (p = 0.012). Overall, admissions for asthma and COPD exacerbations decreased during the lockdown. This might be partially explained by reduction of air pollution during this period while medical care avoidance behavior, especially among elderly patients cannot be excluded. Our findings aid in understanding the untold impact of the pandemic on diseases beyond COVID-19, focusing on patients with obstructive diseases.

scholarly journals COVID-19 public health measures: a reduction in hospital admissions for COPD exacerbations

Thorax ◽  
2020 ◽  
pp. thoraxjnl-2020-216083
Author(s):  
Jing Yuan Tan ◽  
Edwin Philip Conceicao ◽  
Liang En Wee ◽  
Xiang Ying Jean Sim ◽  
Indumathi Venkatachalam
Keyword(s):  
Public Health ◽  
Clinical Outcomes ◽  
Hospital Admissions ◽  
Viral Infections ◽  
Significant Morbidity ◽  
Common Cause ◽  
Copd Exacerbations ◽  
Health Measures ◽  
Acute Exacerbations ◽  
Respiratory Viral Infections

Hospitalisations for acute exacerbations of COPD (AECOPD) carry significant morbidity and mortality. Respiratory viral infections (RVIs) are the most common cause of AECOPD and are associated with worse clinical outcomes. During the COVID-19 pandemic, public health measures, such as social distancing and universal masking, were originally implemented to reduce transmission of SARS-CoV-2; these public health measures were subsequently also observed to reduce transmission of other common circulating RVIs. In this study, we report a significant and sustained decrease in hospital admissions for all AECOPD as well as RVI-associated AECOPD, which coincided with the introduction of public health measures during the COVID-19 pandemic.

scholarly journals Air pollution and hospital admissions and deaths due to respiratory infections in megacity of Tehran: A time series analysis

2021 ◽  
Author(s):  
Zahra Namvar ◽  
Mostafa Hadei ◽  
Seyed Saeed Hashemi ◽  
Elahe Shahhosseini ◽  
Philip K. Hopke ◽  
...  
Keyword(s):  
Air Pollution ◽  
Air Pollutants ◽  
Hospital Admissions ◽  
Respiratory Infections ◽  
Positive Association ◽  
Ambient Air ◽  
Age Group ◽  
Distributed Lag ◽  
Ambient Air Pollutants ◽  
Short Term Exposure

Introduction: Air pollution is one of the main causes for the significant increase of respiratory infections in Tehran. In the present study, we investigated the associations between short-term exposure to ambient air pollutants with the hospital admissions and deaths. Materials and methods: Health data from 39915 hospital admissions and 2459 registered deaths associated with these hospital admissions for respiratory infections were obtained from the Ministry of Health and Medical Education during 2014-2017. We used the distributed lag non-linear model (DLNM) for the analyses. Results: There was a statistically positive association between PM2.5 and AURI in the age group of 16 years and younger at lags 6 (RR 1.31; 1.05-1.64) and 7 (RR 1.50; 1.09-2.06). AURI admissions was associated with O3 in the age group of 16 and 65 years at lag 7 with RR 1.13 (1.00-1.27). ALRI admissions was associated with CO in the age group of 65 years and older at lag 0 with RR 1.12 (1.02-1.23). PM10 was associated with ALRI daily hospital admissions at lag 0 for males. ALRI admissions were associated with NO2 for females at lag 0. There was a positive association between ALRI deaths and SO2 in the age group of 65 years and older at lags 4 and 5 with RR 1.04 (1.00-1.09) and 1.03 (1.00-1.07), respectively. Conclusion: Exposure to outdoor air pollutants including PM10, PM2.5, SO2, NO2, O3, and CO was associated with hospital admissions for AURI and ALRI at different lags. Moreover, exposure to SO2 was associated with deaths for ALRI.

scholarly journals Ambient Air Pollution and Hospital Admissions for Peptic Ulcers in Taipei: A Time-Stratified Case-Crossover Study

2019 ◽  
Vol 16 (11) ◽  
pp. 1916 ◽  
Author(s):  
Shang-Shyue Tsai ◽  
Hui-Fen Chiu ◽  
Chun-Yuh Yang
Keyword(s):  
Air Pollution ◽  
Peptic Ulcer ◽  
Crossover Study ◽  
Air Pollutants ◽  
Hospital Admissions ◽  
Ambient Air ◽  
Air Pollutant ◽  
Ambient Air Pollution ◽  
Research Database ◽  
Case Crossover

Very few studies have been performed to determine whether there is a relationship between air pollution and increases in hospitalizations for peptic ulcer, and for those that have occurred, their results may not be completely relevant to Taiwan, where the mixture of ambient air pollutants differ. We performed a time-stratified case-crossover study to investigate the possible association between air pollutant levels and hospital admissions for peptic ulcer in Taipei, Taiwan. To do this, we collected air pollution data from Taiwan's Environmental Protection Agency and hospital admissions for peptic ulcer data for the years 2009–2013 from Taiwan's National Health Insurance's research database. We used conditional logistic regression to analyze the possible association between the two, taking temperature and relative humidity into account. Risk was expressed as odds ratios and significance was expressed with 95% confidence intervals. In our single pollutant model, peptic ulcer admissions were significantly associated with all pollutants (PM10, PM2.5, SO2, NO2, CO, and O3) on warm days (>23 °C). On cool days (<23 °C), peptic ulcer admissions were significantly associated with PM10, NO2, and O3. In our two-pollutant models, peptic ulcer admissions were significantly associated NO2 and O3 when combined with each of the other pollutants on warm days, and with PM10, NO2, and O3 on cool days. It was concluded that the likelihood of peptic ulcer hospitalizations in Taipei rose significantly with increases in air pollutants during the study period.

scholarly journals Monthly-Term Associations Between Air Pollutants and Respiratory Morbidity in South Brazil 2013–2016: A Multi-City, Time-Series Analysis

2019 ◽  
Vol 16 (20) ◽  
pp. 3787 ◽  
Author(s):  
Dayana Milena Agudelo-Castañeda ◽  
Elba Calesso Teixeira ◽  
Larissa Alves ◽  
Julián Alfredo Fernández-Niño ◽  
Laura Andrea Rodríguez-Villamizar
Keyword(s):  
Air Pollution ◽  
Time Series ◽  
Air Pollutants ◽  
Hospital Admissions ◽  
Age Groups ◽  
Information Service ◽  
Average Concentration ◽  
Respiratory Morbidity ◽  
Maximum Effect ◽  
South Brazil

Most air pollution research conducted in Brazil has focused on assessing the daily-term effects of pollutants, but little is known about the health effects of air pollutants at an intermediate time term. The objective of this study was to determine the monthly-term association between air pollution and respiratory morbidity in five cities in South Brazil. An ecological time-series study was performed using the municipality as the unit of observation in five cities in South Brazil (Gravataí, Triunfo, Esteio, Canoas, and Charqueadas) between 2013 and 2016. Data for hospital admissions was obtained from the records of the Hospital Information Service. Air pollution data, including PM10, SO2, CO, NO2, and O3 (µg/m3) were obtained from the environmental government agency in Rio Grande do Sul State. Panel multivariable Poisson regression models were adjusted for monthly counts of respiratory hospitalizations. An increase of 10 μg/m3 in the monthly average concentration of PM10 was associated with an increase of respiratory hospitalizations in all age groups, with the maximum effect on the population aged between 16 and 59 years (IRR: Incidence rate ratio 2.04 (95% CI: Confidence interval = 1.97–2.12)). For NO2 and SO2, stronger intermediate-term effects were found in children aged between 6 and 15 years, while for O3 higher effects were found in children under 1 year. This is the first multi-city study conducted in South Brazil to account for intermediate-term effects of air pollutants on respiratory health.

Influence of air pollution on hospital admissions in patients with COPD or asthma exacerbation

2020 ◽  
Author(s):  
Ana Cerezo Hernández ◽  
Daniel Álvarez González ◽  
Raúl López Izquierdo ◽  
Fernando Moreno Torrero ◽  
Ana Gómez García ◽  
...  
Keyword(s):  
Air Pollution ◽  
Asthma Exacerbation ◽  
Hospital Admissions

scholarly journals Fine particulate pollution and asthma exacerbations

2017 ◽  
Vol 103 (9) ◽  
pp. 828-831 ◽  
Author(s):  
Naïm Bouazza ◽  
Frantz Foissac ◽  
Saik Urien ◽  
Romain Guedj ◽  
Ricardo Carbajal ◽  
...  
Keyword(s):  
Air Pollution ◽  
Air Pollutants ◽  
Asthma Exacerbation ◽  
Meteorological Data ◽  
Maximum Effect ◽  
Sigmoid Function ◽  
Asthma Exacerbations ◽  
Fine Particulate ◽  
Syncytial Virus ◽  
The Impact

ObjectiveAs the results from epidemiological studies about the impact of outdoor air pollution on asthma in children are heterogeneous, our objective was to investigate the association between asthma exacerbation in children and exposure to air pollutants.MethodsA database of 1 264 585 paediatric visits during the 2010–2015 period to the emergency rooms from 20 emergency departments (EDs) of ‘Assistance Publique Hôpitaux de Paris (APHP)’, the largest hospital group in Europe, was used. A total of 47 107 visits were classified as asthma exacerbations. Concentration of air pollutants (nitrogen dioxide, ozone, fine particulate matter (PM) with an aerodynamic diameter smaller than 10  µm (PM10) and 2.5 µm (PM2.5)), as well as meteorological data, evolution of respiratory syncytial virus infection and pollen exposition, were collected on an hourly or daily basis for the same period using institutional databases. To assess the association between air pollution and asthma, mixed-effects quasi-Poisson regression modelling was performed.ResultsThe only compound independently associated with ED visits for asthma was PM2.5 (P<10−4). The association between asthma exacerbation and PM2.5 was not linear, and a sigmoid function described the relationshipsatisfactorily. PM2.5 concentration, which gives half the maximum effect, was estimated at 13.5 µg/m3.ConclusionsWe found an association between daily asthma exacerbation in paediatric visits to the ED and fine particulate air pollutants.

scholarly journals Air Pollution and Emergency Hospital Admissions—Evidences from Lisbon Metropolitan Area, Portugal

2020 ◽  
Vol 10 (22) ◽  
pp. 7997
Author(s):  
Pedro Franco ◽  
Cristina Gordo ◽  
Eduarda Marques da Costa ◽  
António Lopes
Keyword(s):  
Air Pollution ◽  
Metropolitan Area ◽  
Air Pollutants ◽  
Respiratory Diseases ◽  
Hospital Admissions ◽  
Age Group ◽  
Emergency Hospital ◽  
Emergency Hospital Admissions ◽  
Urban City ◽  
Circulatory Diseases

The relevance of air pollution in the public health agenda has recently been reinforced—it is known that exposure to it has negative effects in the health of individuals, especially in big cities and metropolitan areas. In this article we observed the evolution of air pollutants (CO, NO, NO2, O3, PM10) emissions and we confront them with health vulnerabilities related to respiratory and circulatory diseases (all circulatory diseases, cardiac diseases, cerebrovascular disease, ischemic heart disease, all respiratory diseases, chronic lower respiratory diseases, acute upper respiratory infections). The study is supported in two databases, one of air pollutants and the other of emergency hospital admissions, in the 2005–2015 period, applied to the Lisbon Metropolitan Area. The analysis was conducted through Ordinary Least Squares (OLS) regression, while also using semi-elasticity to quantify associations. Results showed positive associations between air pollutants and admissions, tendentially higher in respiratory diseases, with CO and O3 having the highest number of associations, and the senior age group being the most impacted. We concluded that O3 is a good predictor for the under-15 age group and PM10 for the over-64 age group; also, there seems to exist a distinction between the urban city core and its suburban areas in air pollution and its relation to emergency hospital admissions.

scholarly journals The effects of air pollution on cardiovascular diseases: lag structures

2006 ◽  
Vol 40 (4) ◽  
pp. 677-683 ◽  
Author(s):  
Lourdes Conceição Martins ◽  
Luiz A A Pereira ◽  
Chin A Lin ◽  
Ubiratan P Santos ◽  
Gildeoni Prioli ◽  
...  
Keyword(s):  
Air Pollution ◽  
Cardiovascular Diseases ◽  
Air Pollutants ◽  
Hospital Admissions ◽  
Sao Paulo ◽  
Southeastern Brazil ◽  
Female Group ◽  
São Paulo ◽  
Distributed Lag ◽  
Gender Groups

OBJECTIVE: To assess the lag structure between air pollution exposure and elderly cardiovascular diseases hospital admissions, by gender. METHODS: Health data of people aged 64 years or older was stratified by gender in São Paulo city, Southeastern Brazil, from 1996 to 2001. Daily levels of air pollutants (CO, PM10, O3, NO2, and SO2) , minimum temperature, and relative humidity were also analyzed. It were fitted generalized additive Poisson regressions and used constrained distributed lag models adjusted for long time trend, weekdays, weather and holidays to assess the lagged effects of air pollutants on hospital admissions up to 20 days after exposure. RESULTS: Interquartile range increases in PM10 (26.21 mug/m³) and SO2 (10.73 mug/m³) were associated with 3.17% (95% CI: 2.09-4.25) increase in congestive heart failure and 0.89% (95% CI: 0.18-1.61) increase in total cardiovascular diseases at lag 0, respectively. Effects were higher among female group for most of the analyzed outcomes. Effects of air pollutants for different outcomes and gender groups were predominately acute and some "harvesting" were found. CONLUSIONS: The results show that cardiovascular diseases in São Paulo are strongly affected by air pollution.

scholarly journals Air Pollution Exposure as a Relevant Risk Factor for COPD Exacerbations in Male and Female Patients

2021 ◽  
Author(s):  
Miguel Enrique Silva Rodriguez ◽  
Patricia Silveyra
Keyword(s):  
Air Pollution ◽  
Chronic Obstructive ◽  
Obstructive Pulmonary Disease ◽  
Male And Female ◽  
Female Patients ◽  
Copd Exacerbations ◽  
Acute Exacerbations ◽  
Air Pollution Exposure ◽  
Relevant Risk Factor ◽  
Pollution Exposure

Chronic obstructive pulmonary disease (COPD) is a multifactorial lung inflammatory disease affecting 174 million people worldwide, with a recently reported increased incidence in female patients. Patients with COPD are especially vulnerable to the detrimental effects of environmental exposures, especially from air particulate and gaseous pollutants. Exposure to air pollution severely influences COPD outcomes, resulting in acute exacerbations, hospitalizations, and death. In the current study, we conducted a review of the literature addressing air pollution induced acute exacerbations of COPD (AECOPD) in order to determine whether air pollution affects COPD patients in a sex-specific manner. We found that while the majority of studies enrolled both male and female patients, only a few reported results disaggregated by sex. Most studies had a higher enrollment of male patients, only four compared AECOPD outcomes between sexes, and only one study identified sex differences in AECOPD, with females displaying higher rates. Overall, our analysis of the literature confirmed that air pollution exposure is a trigger for AECOPD hospitalizations and revealed a significant gap in our knowledge of sex-specific effects of air pollutants on COPD outcomes, highlighting the need for more studies considering sex as a biological variable.

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