We investigated the association between short-term exposure to air pollution and the risk of acute exacerbation of chronic obstructive pulmonary disease (AE-COPD) in seven metropolitan cities in Korea. We used national health insurance claims data to identify AE-COPD cases in 2015. We estimated short-term exposure to particulate matter (PM) with a diameter of ≤2.5 μm (PM2.5), PM with diameters of ≤10 μm (PM10), sulfur dioxide (SO2), nitrogen dioxide (NO2), carbon monoxide (CO), and ozone (O3) obtained from the Ministry of Environment. We conducted a time-stratified, case-crossover study to evaluate the effect of short-term exposure to air pollution on hospital visits for AE-COPD, using a conditional logistic regression model. The risk of hospital visits for AE-COPD was significantly associated with interquartile range increases in PM10 in a cumulative lag model (lag 0-2, 0.35%, 95% confidence interval (CI) 0.06-0.65%; lag 0-3, 0.39%, 95% CI 0.01-0.77%). The associations were higher among patients who were men, aged 40-64 years, with low household income, and with a history of asthma. However, other air pollutants were not significantly associated with the risk of hospital visits for AE-COPD. Short-term exposure to air pollution, especially PM10, increases the risk of hospital visits for AE-COPD.
Keywords: acute exacerbation; air pollution; chronic obstructive pulmonary disease; insurance claims.