The effect of primary organic particles on emergency hospital admissions among the elderly in 3 US cities

Environmental Health

Research

Brent A Coull¹  Francesca Dominici¹  Marianthi-Anna Kioumourtzoglou²  Joel D Schwartz²  Antonella Zanobetti²  Helen H Suh³ 

[1] Department of Biostatistics, Harvard School of Public Health, Boston, MA, USA;Department of Environmental Health, Harvard School of Public Health, Boston, MA, USA;Department of Health Sciences, Northeastern University, Boston, MA, USA;

关键词: Emergency hospital admissions;    Fine particles;    Medicare;    Primary organic particles;   

DOI  :  10.1186/1476-069X-12-68

 received in 2013-05-28, accepted in 2013-08-21,  发布年份 2013

来源: Springer

【 摘 要 】

BackgroundFine particle (PM2.5) pollution related to combustion sources has been linked to a variety of adverse health outcomes. Although poorly understood, it is possible that organic carbon (OC) species, particularly those from combustion-related sources, may be partially responsible for the observed toxicity of PM2.5. The toxicity of the OC species may be related to their chemical structures; however, few studies have examined the association of OC species with health impacts.MethodsWe categorized 58 primary organic compounds by their chemical properties into 5 groups: n-alkanes, hopanes, cyclohexanes, PAHs and isoalkanes. We examined their impacts on the rate of daily emergency hospital admissions among Medicare recipients in Atlanta, GA and Birmingham, AL (2006–2009), and Dallas, TX (2006–2007). We analyzed data in two stages; we applied a case-crossover analysis to simultaneously estimate effects of individual OC species on cause-specific hospital admissions. In the second stage we estimated the OC chemical group-specific effects, using a multivariate weighted regression.ResultsExposures to cyclohexanes of six days and longer were significantly and consistently associated with increased rate of hospital admissions for CVD (3.40%, 95%CI = (0.64, 6.24%) for 7-d exposure). Similar increases were found for hospitalizations for ischemic heart disease and myocardial infarction. For respiratory related hospital admissions, associations with OC groups were less consistent, although exposure to iso-/anteiso-alkanes was associated with increased respiratory-related hospitalizations.ConclusionsResults suggest that week-long exposures to traffic-related, primary organic species are associated with increased rate of total and cause-specific CVD emergency hospital admissions. Associations were significant for cyclohexanes, but not hopanes, suggesting that chemical properties likely play an important role in primary OC toxicity.

【 授权许可】

CC BY   
© Kioumourtzoglou et al.; licensee BioMed Central Ltd. 2013