scholarly journals Air Pollution Is Associated with COVID-19 Incidence and Mortality in Vienna, Austria

Author(s):  
Hans-Peter Hutter ◽  
Michael Poteser ◽  
Hanns Moshammer ◽  
Kathrin Lemmerer ◽  
Monika Mayer ◽  
...  

We determined the impact of air pollution on COVID-19-related mortality and reported-case incidence, analyzing the correlation of infection case numbers and outcomes with previous-year air pollution data from the populations of 23 Viennese districts. Time at risk started in a district when the first COVID-19 case was diagnosed. High exposure levels were defined as living in a district with an average (year 2019) concentration of nitrogen dioxide (NO2) and/or particulate matter (PM10) higher than the upper quartile (30 and 20 µg/m3, respectively) of all districts. The total population of the individual districts was followed until diagnosis of or death from COVID-19, or until 21 April 2020, whichever came first. Cox proportional hazard regression was performed after controlling for percentage of population aged 65 and more, percentage of foreigners and of persons with a university degree, unemployment rate, and population density. PM10 and NO2 were significantly and positively associated with the risk of a COVID-19 diagnosis (hazard ratio (HR) = 1.44 and 1.16, respectively). NO2 was also significantly associated with death from COVID-19 (HR = 1.72). Even within a single city, higher levels of air pollution are associated with an adverse impact on COVID-19 risk.

2020 ◽  
Vol 2020 ◽  
pp. 1-7
Author(s):  
Grzegorz M. Kubiak ◽  
Radosław Kwieciński ◽  
Agnieszka Ciarka ◽  
Andrzej Tukiendorf ◽  
Piotr Przybyłowski ◽  
...  

Introduction. The data assessing the impact of beta blocker (BB) medication on survival in patients after heart transplantation (HTx) are scarce and unequivocal; therefore, we investigated this population. Methods. We retrospectively analyzed the HTx Zabrze Registry of 380 consecutive patients who survived the 30-day postoperative period. Results. The percentage of patients from the entire cohort taking BBs was as follows: atenolol 24 (17%), bisoprolol 67 (49%), carvedilol 11 (8%), metoprolol 28 (20%), and nebivolol 8 (6%). The patients receiving BBs were older (56.94 ± 14.68 years vs. 52.70 ± 15.35 years, p=0.008) and experienced an onset of HTx earlier in years (11.65 ± 7.04 vs. 7.24 ± 5.78 p≤0.001). They also had higher hematocrit (0.40 ± 0.05 vs. 0.39 ± 0.05, p=0.022) and red blood cells (4.63 (106/μl) ± 0.71 vs. 4.45 (106/μl) ± 0.68, p=0.015). Survival according to BB medication did not differ among the groups (p=0.655) (log-rank test). Univariate Cox proportional hazard regression analysis revealed that the following parameters were associated with unfavorable diagnosis: serum concentration of albumin (g/l) HR: 0.87, 95% CI (0.81–0.94), p=0.0004; fibrinogen (mg/dl) HR: 1.006, 95% CI (1.002–1.008), p=0.0017; and C-reactive protein (mg/l) HR: 1.014, 95% CI (1.004–1.023), p=0.0044. Conclusions. The use of BBs in our cohort of patients after HTx was not associated with survival benefits.


QJM ◽  
2020 ◽  
Author(s):  
W -S Hu ◽  
C -L Lin

Summary Objective To investigate the effect of air pollution on gout development. Methods A total of 170318 participants were enrolled. These pollutants were considered: carbon monoxide (CO), fine particulate matter 2.5 (PM2.5), total hydrocarbons (THC) and methane (CH4). The yearly average concentrations were calculated from 2000 to 2011. Univariate and multivariate analyses by Cox proportional hazard regression models were adopted to estimate hazard ratios for gout in the Q2–Q4 concentrations of air pollutants compared with the Q1 concentration. Results In THC, relative to the Q1 concentration, the risk of gout was higher in participants exposed to the Q2–Q4 concentrations [adjusted hazard ratio (aHR), 1.10 with 95% confidence interval (CI), 1.01–1.19 in the Q2 concentration of THC; aHR, 4.20 with 95% CI, 3.93–4.49 in the Q3 concentration of THC; aHR, 5.65 with 95% CI, 5.29–6.04 in the Q4 concentration of THC]. In regard to CH4, when the Q1 concentration was defined as the reference, the risks of gout were increased for participants exposed to the Q2, Q3 and Q4 concentrations (aHR, 1.16 with 95% CI, 1.06–1.26 in the Q2 concentration of CH4; aHR, 2.37 with 95% CI, 2.20–2.55 in the Q3 concentration of CH4; aHR, 8.73 with 95% CI, 8.16–9.34 in the Q4 concentration of CH4). Conclusions Association between air pollution and risk of gout was noted.


1984 ◽  
Vol 33 (3) ◽  
pp. 403-412 ◽  
Author(s):  
Z. Hrubec ◽  
B. Floderus-Myrhed ◽  
U. de Faire ◽  
S. Sarna

AbstractA Cox proportional hazard regression analysis was carried out that evaluated age-specific death risk among 21,890 twins born in Sweden during 1886 through 1925 and followed during 1962 through 1980. Cotwin's survival was used as the primary covariable, and auxiliary covariables were smoking, marital status and, among men, police registration for alcohol abuse. In each age, sex and zygosity group, except the oldest DZ males, cotwin's mortality had a significant, independent, positive relationship to the mortality risk of the individual. The auxiliary covariables, except marital status among females, had significant, independent, positive relationships to mortality among the youngest twins of both zygosity groups and in the middle age group of MZ twins. In the oldest age group, the death of MZ cot wins was the only variable significantly related to the individual's mortality. Heritability estimates for the age-specific probability or death risk, developed by different methods for different analysis groups, range between 0.4 and 0.6. They have reasonable internal consistency, are not much affected by the covariates, and are in agreement with other studies that did not control covariates.


2020 ◽  
Vol 38 (15_suppl) ◽  
pp. e15162-e15162
Author(s):  
Paul Pyunggang Hong ◽  
Junjia Zhu ◽  
Joseph J. Drabick ◽  
Todd D. Schell

e15162 Background: Combined administration of β-adrenergic antagonist with IL-2, anti-PD-1, and/or anti-CTLA-4 immunotherapy was associated with a better overall survival in metastatic melanoma patients. This result was also reinforced by the significant reduction in tumor growth in a murine melanoma model when a β2-selective antagonist was combined with anti-PD1/IL-2 immunotherapy. Here we sought to elucidate the impact of the various comorbidities behind the indications of β-blockers, and how they might have influenced the patients’ immunotherapy treatment response. Methods: A single-institution retrospective chart review was performed to examine the medical comorbidities with indications for β-blockers in the melanoma patients who received IL-2, αPD-1 and/or αCTLA-4 immunotherapy between January 2000 and March 2015. Two groups were identified: one that took a selective β-1 blocker (N = 41), and another that took a nonselective pan β-blocker (N = 17). The primary analysis compared the distribution of different comorbidity types between two groups, using the Fisher’s exact test. A secondary analysis examined the association of overall survival and the β-blocker groups by further controlling for comorbid conditions, using the multivariate Cox Proportional-Hazard regression model. Results: Seven different comorbidities with indications for β-blocker usage were identified. Of those comorbidities, only the presence of ischemic heart disease was marginally different between the two groups (β-1 group 19.5% vs. pan-β group 47.1%, p-value = 0.0697). There was no difference for overall survival between each of the comorbidity conditions. When performing the multivariate Cox Proportional-Hazard regression model, β-blocker usage still remained statistically significant for the overall survival (HR 0.27, CI 0.0966-0.768, p = 0.0139), even after controlling for the comorbid conditions. Conclusions: Immunotherapy with pan β-adrenergic blockade was associated with a significantly improved overall survival rate for metastatic melanoma. Furthermore, having a comorbid condition that indicated for the prescription of β-blockers was not a factor in establishing this survival rate.


2021 ◽  
Vol 22 (1) ◽  
Author(s):  
Yuqi Yang ◽  
Jingjing Da ◽  
Yi Jiang ◽  
Jing Yuan ◽  
Yan Zha

Abstract Background Serum parathyroid hormone (PTH) levels have been reported to be associated with infectious mortality in peritoneal dialysis (PD) patients. Peritonitis is the most common and fatal infectious complication, resulting in technique failure, hospital admission and mortality. Whether PTH is associated with peritonitis episodes remains unclear. Methods We examined the association of PTH levels and peritonitis incidence in a 7-year cohort of 270 incident PD patients who were maintained on dialysis between January 2012 and December 2018 using Cox proportional hazard regression analyses. Patients were categorized into three groups by serum PTH levels as follows: low-PTH group, PTH < 150 pg/mL; middle-PTH group, PTH 150-300 pg/mL; high-PTH group, PTH > 300 pg/mL. Results During a median follow-up of 29.5 (interquartile range 16–49) months, the incidence rate of peritonitis was 0.10 episodes per patient-year. Gram-positive organisms were the most common causative microorganisms (36.2%), and higher percentage of Gram-negative organisms was noted in patients with low PTH levels. Low PTH levels were associated with older age, higher eGFR, higher hemoglobin, calcium levels and lower phosphate, alkaline phosphatase levels. After multivariate adjustment, lower PTH levels were identified as an independent risk factor for peritonitis episodes [hazard ratio 1.643, 95% confidence interval 1.014–2.663, P = 0.044]. Conclusions Low PTH levels are independently associated with peritonitis in incident PD patients.


2020 ◽  
Vol 79 (Suppl 1) ◽  
pp. 1445.1-1445
Author(s):  
F. Girelli ◽  
A. Ariani ◽  
M. Bruschi ◽  
A. Becciolini ◽  
L. Gardelli ◽  
...  

Background:The available biosimilars of etanercept are as effective and well tolerated as their bio originator molecule in the naive treatment of chronic autoimmune arthritis. More data about the switching from the bio originator are needed.Objectives:To compare the clinical outcomes of the treatment with etanercept biosimilars (SB4 and GP2015) naïve and after the switch from their corresponding originator in patients affected by autoimmune arthritis in a real life settingMethods:We retrospectively analyzed the baseline characteristics and the retention rate in a cohort of patients who received at least a course of etanercept (originator or biosimilar) in our Rheumatology Units from January 2000 to January 2020. We stratified the study population according to biosimilar use. Descriptive data are presented by medians (interquartile range [IQR]) for continuous data or as numbers (percentages) for categorical data. Drug survival distribution curves were computed by the Kaplan-Meier method and compared by a stratified log-rank test. A Cox proportional hazards regression analysis stratified by indication, drug, age, disease duration, sex, treatment line, biosimilar use and prescription year was performed. P values≤0.05 were considered statistically significant.Results:477 patients (65% female, median age 56 [46-75] years, median disease duration 97 [40.25-178.75] months) treated with etanercept were included in the analysis. 257 (53.9%) were affect by rheumatoid arthritis, 139 (29.1%) by psoriatic arthritis, and 81 (17%) by axial spondylarthritis. 298 (62.5%) were treated with etanercept originator, 97 (20.3%) with SB4, and 82 (17.2%) with GP2015. Among the biosimilars 90/179 (50.3%) patients were naïve to etanercept treatment. Among the 89 switchers we observed 8 treatment discontinuations: one due to surgical infection complication, three due to disease flare, two due to subjective worsening and one due to remission. The overall 6- and 12-month retentions rate were 92.8% and 80.2%. The 6- and 12-month retention rate for etanercept, SB4 and GP2015 were 92.7%, 93.4% and 90.2%, and 82%, 74.5% and 88.1% respectively, without significant differences among the three groups (p=0.374). Patients switching from originator to biosimilars showed and overall higher treatment survival when compared to naive (12-month retention rate 81.2% vs 70.8%, p=0.036). The Cox proportional hazard regression analysis highlighted that the only predictor significantly associated with an overall higher risk of treatment discontinuation was the year of prescription (HR 1.08, 95% CI 1.04 to 1.13; p<0.0001).Conclusion:In our retrospective study etanercept originator and its biosimilars (SB4 and GP2015) showed the same effectiveness. Patients switching from originator to biosimilar showed an significant higher retention rate when compared to naive. The only predictor of treatment discontinuation highlighted by the Cox proportional hazard regression analysis was the year of treatment prescription.Disclosure of Interests:Francesco Girelli: None declared, Alarico Ariani: None declared, Marco Bruschi: None declared, Andrea Becciolini Speakers bureau: Sanofi-Genzyme, UCB and AbbVie, Lucia Gardelli: None declared, Maurizio Nizzoli: None declared


2020 ◽  
pp. 140349482096065
Author(s):  
Hanna Rinne ◽  
Mikko Laaksonen

Aims: Most high mortality-risk occupations are manual occupations. We examined to what extent high mortality of such occupations could be explained by education, income, unemployment or industry and whether there were differences in these effects among different manual occupations. Methods: We used longitudinal individual-level register-based data, the study population consisting of employees aged 30–64 at the end of the year 2000 with the follow-up period 2001–2015. We used Cox proportional hazard regression models in 31 male and 11 female occupations with high mortality. Results: There were considerable differences between manual occupations in how much adjusting for education, income, unemployment and industry explained the excess mortality. The variation was especially large among men: controlling for these variables explained over 50% of the excess mortality in 23 occupations. However, in some occupations the excess mortality even increased in relation to unadjusted mortality. Among women, these variables explained a varying proportion of the excess mortality in every occupation. After adjustment of all variables, mortality was no more statistically significantly higher than average in 14 occupations among men and 2 occupations among women. Conclusions: The high mortality in manual occupations was mainly explained by education, income, unemployment and industry. However, the degree of explanation varied widely between occupations, and considerable variation in mortality existed between manual occupations after controlling for these variables. More research is needed on other determinants of mortality in specific high-risk occupations.


Neurology ◽  
2021 ◽  
Vol 96 (12) ◽  
pp. e1620-e1631
Author(s):  
James B. Wetmore ◽  
Yi Peng ◽  
Heng Yan ◽  
Suying Li ◽  
Muna Irfan ◽  
...  

ObjectiveTo determine the association of dementia-related psychosis (DRP) with death and use of long-term care (LTC); we hypothesized that DRP would be associated with increased risk of death and use of LTC in patients with dementia.MethodsA retrospective cohort study was performed. Medicare claims from 2008 to 2016 were used to define cohorts of patients with dementia and DRP. Outcomes were LTC, defined as nursing home stays of >100 consecutive days, and death. Patients with DRP were directly matched to patients with dementia without psychosis by age, sex, race, number of comorbid conditions, and dementia index year. Association of DRP with outcomes was evaluated using a Cox proportional hazard regression model.ResultsWe identified 256,408 patients with dementia. Within 2 years after the dementia index date, 13.9% of patients developed DRP and 31.9% had died. Corresponding estimates at 5 years were 25.5% and 64.0%. Mean age differed little between those who developed DRP (83.8 ± 7.9 years) and those who did not (83.1 ± 8.7 years). Patients with DRP were slightly more likely to be female (71.0% vs 68.3%) and white (85.7% vs 82.0%). Within 2 years of developing DRP, 16.1% entered LTC and 52.0% died; corresponding percentages for patients without DRP were 8.4% and 30.0%, respectively. In the matched cohort, DRP was associated with greater risk of LTC (hazard ratio [HR] 2.36, 2.29–2.44) and death (HR 2.06, 2.02–2.10).ConclusionsDRP was associated with a more than doubling in the risk of death and a nearly 2.5-fold increase in risk of the need for LTC.


2021 ◽  
pp. 1-7
Author(s):  
Shouliang Hu ◽  
Dan Wang ◽  
Tean Ma ◽  
Fanli Yuan ◽  
Yong Zhang ◽  
...  

<b><i>Background:</i></b> Inflammation appears to be at the biological core of arteriovenous fistula (AVF) dysfunction, and the occurrence of AVF dysfunction is related to high death and disability in hemodialysis (HD) patients. Despite several studies on the correlations between AVF dysfunction and inflammatory indicators, how AVF dysfunction is related to the monocyte-to-lymphocyte ratio (MLR) is much unclear. We hypothesize that preoperative MLR is associated with AVF dysfunction in Chinese HD patients. <b><i>Methods:</i></b> In this single-center retrospective cohort study, totally 769 adult HD patients with a new AVF created between 2011 and 2019 were included. Association of preoperative MLR with AVF dysfunction (thrombosis or decrease of normal vessel diameter by &#x3e;50%, requiring either surgical revision or percutaneous transluminal angioplasty) was assessed by multivariable Cox proportional hazard regression. <b><i>Results:</i></b> The patients were aged 55.8 ± 12.2 years and were mostly males (55%). During the average 32-month follow-up (maximum 119 months), 223 (29.0%) patients had permanent vascular access dysfunction. In adjusted multivariable Cox proportional hazard regression analyses, the risk of AVF dysfunction was 4.32 times higher with 1 unit increase in MLR (hazard ratio [HR]: 5.32; 95% confidence interval [CI]: 3.1–9.11). Compared with patients with MLR &#x3c;0.28, HRs associated with an MLR of 0.28–0.41 and ≥0.41 are 1.54 (95% CI: 1.02–2.32) and 3.17 (2.18–4.62), respectively. <b><i>Conclusions:</i></b> A higher preoperative MLR is independently connected with a severer risk of AVF dysfunction in HD patients. Its clinical value should be determined in the future.


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