[Estimating emergency hospital admissions to gauge short-term effects of air pollution: evaluation of health data quality]

Sante Publique. 2009 Mar-Apr;21(2):147-58. doi: 10.3917/spub.092.0147.
[Article in French]

Abstract

The study of the short-term effects and health impact of air pollution is carrier out by the ERPURS regional surveillance program which utilizes hospitalization data obtained from the French hospital information system (PMSI) to determine these links. This system does not permit the distinction between emergency hospital admissions from scheduled ones, which cannot be related to short term changes in air pollution levels. This study examines how scheduled admissions affect the quality of the health indicators used to estimate air pollution effects. This indicator is compared to three new emergency hospitalisation indicators reconstructed based on data from the public hospitals in Paris, partly from the PMSI data and partly with data from an on-line emergency network that regroups all of the computerized emergency services. According to the pathology, scheduled admissions present a difficulty which affects the capacity to highlight the weakest risks with any precision.

MeSH terms

  • Adolescent
  • Adult
  • Aged
  • Air Pollution / adverse effects*
  • Air Pollution / analysis
  • Emergency Service, Hospital / statistics & numerical data*
  • Female
  • France / epidemiology
  • Humans
  • Male
  • Middle Aged
  • Patient Admission / statistics & numerical data*
  • Respiration Disorders / epidemiology
  • Young Adult