Comparison of hospitalization and mortality associated with short-term exposure to ambient ozone and PM2.5 in Canada

Hwashin Hyun Shin; Priyanka Gogna; Aubrey Maquiling; Rajendra Prasad Parajuli; Lani Haque; Benjamin Burr

doi:10.1016/j.chemosphere.2020.128683

Comparison of hospitalization and mortality associated with short-term exposure to ambient ozone and PM_2.5 in Canada

Chemosphere. 2021 Feb:265:128683. doi: 10.1016/j.chemosphere.2020.128683. Epub 2020 Oct 29.

Authors

Hwashin Hyun Shin¹, Priyanka Gogna², Aubrey Maquiling³, Rajendra Prasad Parajuli⁴, Lani Haque⁵, Benjamin Burr⁶

Affiliations

¹ Environmental Health Science and Research Bureau, Health Canada, Ottawa, ON, Canada; Department of Mathematics and Statistics, Queen's University, Kingston, ON, Canada. Electronic address: hwashin.shin@canada.ca.
² Department of Public Health Sciences, Queen's University, Kingston, ON, Canada. Electronic address: gogna.p@queensu.ca.
³ Environmental Health Science and Research Bureau, Health Canada, Ottawa, ON, Canada. Electronic address: aubrey.maquiling@canada.ca.
⁴ Research Centre for CHUM, University of Montreal, Montreal, Canada. Electronic address: parajulirp@gmail.com.
⁵ Environmental Health Science and Research Bureau, Health Canada, Ottawa, ON, Canada. Electronic address: lhaque@rogers.com.
⁶ Department of Mathematics and Statistics, Carleton University, Ottawa, ON, Canada. Electronic address: benburr@cmail.carleton.ca.

PMID: 33158503
DOI: 10.1016/j.chemosphere.2020.128683

Abstract

Background: Hospitalization and mortality (H-M) have been linked to air pollution separately. However, previous studies have not adequately compared whether air pollution is a stronger risk factor for hospitalization or mortality. This study aimed to investigate differences in H-M risk from short-term ozone and PM_2.5 exposures, and determine whether differences are modified by season, age, and sex.

Methods: Daily ozone, PM_2.5, temperature, and all-cause H-M counts (ICD-10, A00-R99) were collected for 22-24 Canadian cities for up to 29 years. Generalized additive Poisson models were employed to estimate associations between each pollutant and health outcome, which were compared across season (warm, cold, or year-round), age (all ages or seniors > 65), and sex.

Results: Overall, ozone and PM_2.5 showed higher season-specific risk of mortality than hospitalization: warm-season ozone: 0.54% (95% credible interval, 0.20, 0.85) vs. 0.14% (0.02, 0.27) per 10 ppb; and year-round PM_2.5: 0.90% (0.33, 1.41) vs. 0.29% (0.03, 0.56) per 10 μg/m³. While age showed little H-M difference, sex appeared to be a modifier of H-M risk. While females had higher mortality risk, males had higher hospitalization risk: for females, ozone 0.87% (0.36, 1.35) vs. -0.03% (-0.18, 0.11) and PM_2.5 1.19% (0.40, 1.90) vs. 0.19% (-0.10, 0.47); and for males ozone 0.20% (-0.28, 0.65) vs. 0.35% (0.18, 0.51).

Conclusion: This study found H-M differences attributable to ozone and PM_2.5, suggesting that both are stronger risk factors for mortality than hospitalization. In addition, there were clear H-M differences by sex: specifically, females showed higher mortality risk and males showed higher hospitalization risk.

Keywords: Ground-level ozone; Hospitalization; Mortality; PM(2.5); Sex-specific difference; Short-term exposure.

MeSH terms

Air Pollutants* / analysis
Air Pollutants* / toxicity
Air Pollution* / adverse effects
Air Pollution* / analysis
Canada
Cities
Environmental Exposure / adverse effects
Environmental Exposure / analysis
Female
Hospitalization
Humans
Male
Ozone* / analysis
Ozone* / toxicity
Particulate Matter / analysis
Particulate Matter / toxicity

Substances

Air Pollutants
Particulate Matter
Ozone