Objective: Assessment of the short-term association between exposure to outdoor air pollution and hospitalization for lower respiratory tract infections (LRTI) in the Bucharest municipality'spopulation.
Materials and methods: Relation exposure--health effect has been explored through linear regression upon time series, where the independent variable was represented by daily levels of nitrogen dioxide (NO), carbon monoxide (CO), sulfur dioxide (SO2) and ozone (O3) from atmospheric air of Bucharest municipality whereas the dependent variable has been represented by daily frequency, by age groups, of Bucharest municipality residents, hospitalized during the year 2007for LRTI (ICD-10 codes: J12-J22).
Results: In the year 2007, through linear regression we found high correlations (p < 0.01) between the following variables: (a) daily atmospheric concentrations of NO2, CO and SO2, (b) daily frequencies of hospitalizations for LRTI by age group and (c) daily air levels of three of the above mentioned pollutants and the age-specific frequencies of patient hospitalization for LRTI. The O3 daily air levels have been correlated (p < 0.01) only with the daily air levels of SO2 and CO but wasn't correlated to NO2 air level or with the health effect studied
Conclusions: in the Bucharest municipality, the study demonstrated robust associations between the atmospheric pollutants' levels and daily frequencies of hospital admissions for LRTI. Through inference the results suggests that the interventions for environment control which will result in decreasing of the pollution level with NO2, CO and SO2 might be associated with decreasing the frequency of hospitalization for LRTI and consequently with preserving the resources allocated for health.