Fine particulate matter (PM2.5) is a mixture of multiple components, which is associated with several chronic diseases, including respiratory and cardiovascular diseases. We evaluated the association between daily PM2.5 and PM2.5-10 exposure and hospital visits for respiratory diseases. Hospital visits for respiratory diseases were collected from Yinzhou Health Information System database. We used generalized additive models to examine the excess relative risk (ERR) and 95% confidence interval for hospital visits for respiratory diseases associated with each 10-μg/m3 increase in PM2.5 and PM2.5-10 concentration. Non-linear exposure-response relationship between PM exposure and hospital visits for respiratory diseases was evaluated by a smooth spline. The ERRs for hospital visits for respiratory diseases associated with a 10-μg/m3 increase in the 6-day cumulative average concentration of PM2.5 and PM2.5-10 were 5.40 (95% CI 2.32, 8.57) and 6.37% (95% CI 1.84, 11.10), respectively. The findings remained stable when we adjusted other gaseous air pollution. PM2.5 and PM2.5-10 were associated with the increased visits for the acute upper respiratory infection, pneumonia, asthma, and COPD. In this time-series study, we found a positive association between daily particulate matter exposure and hospital visits for respiratory diseases.
Keywords: Air pollution; Hospital visits; Particulate matter; Respiratory diseases; Time-series study.