Abstract:
Objective To investigate the impact of nitrogen dioxide (NO2) on the number of hospital admissions for respiratory diseases in Beijing, China, and explore its effect on the number of admissions for respiratory diseases among subpopulations with or without diabetes.
Methods The data on the concentration of the air pollutant NO2, meteorological factors, and hospital admission records for respiratory diseases (chronic obstructive pulmonary disease, asthma, pneumonia, and upper/lower respiratory tract infection) in Beijing from 2014 to 2019 were collected. A generalized additive model (GAM) was constructed to analyze the relationship between NO2 and the number of admissions for respiratory diseases. Furthermore, exploratory analyses were conducted by age, sex, and season to investigate the relationship between NO2 and the number of admissions for respiratory diseases among patients with diabetes and those without diabetes.
Results The GAM result showed a positive association of NO2 concentrations with the total number of admissions for respiratory diseases (P < 0.05), with the cumulative effects greater than the single-day effects. For every increase of one interquartile range (23.55 μg/m3) in daily NO2 concentrations, the strongest effect was observed at a cumulative lag of 0 to 14 days (lag0-14 d), with the excess risk (ER) of 13.78% (95% confidence interval CI: 12.48%-15.09%) for the total population and significantly greater impact on the total number of admissions for respiratory diseases among those over 60 years old (Z=4.87, P < 0.01) and females (Z=-2.81, P < 0.01). For both patients with diabetes and those without diabetes, the ER values were the highest at lag0-14 d, being 15.44% (95%CI: 12.22%-18.75%, P < 0.01) and 13.55% (95%CI: 12.17%-14.95%, P < 0.01), respectively. Mostly, the lagged effect for the people with diabetes were higher than those for people without diabetes, but only showing significant differences from lag0-5 d to lag0-9 d (P < 0.05). There were significant differences in the stratified result by age (Z=-4.58, P < 0.01) and sex (Z=-2.43, P < 0.05) among the subpopulation without diabetes, which was consistent with the stratified results for the total admissions. No gender or age difference was found in the impact of NO2 on diabetic patients.
Conclusion There is an association of an increased NO2 concentration with an increased number of hospital admissions for respiratory diseases in Beijing from 2014 to 2019, with greater impact for the elderly and females. The effect of NO2 on admissions for respiratory diseases is greater among patient with diabetes than among patients without diabetes, and people over 60 years old are more sensitive to its impact.