Sustainable Environment (Dec 2024)
Impact of air pollutants on hospital admissions and economic losses of elderly patients with cardiovascular diseases in Southwestern China: A generalized additive model
Abstract
Background In terms of hospitalization risk for the elderly, the evidences for adverse effects and economic losses of air pollutants on different types of cardiovascular diseases (CVDs) are limited. This study aims to quantify the economic losses of five major CVDs affected by air pollutants in Southwestern China.Methods Hospitalization information of 358,271 participants in the top five CVDs among the elderly population was collected over a 4-year time span. The generalized additive model (GAM) was used to estimate the short-term exposure response relationship between air pollutants and elderly inpatients with CVDs. The cost of illness method (COI) was used to evaluate the corresponding direct and indirect costs, and we refer to this in the text as economic losses.Results Air pollutants significantly increase the risk of hospitalisation in elderly patients with coronary heart disease (CHD), myocardial ischaemia (MI), pulmonary heart disease (PHD), hypertension, and cardiac arrhythmia. CO, NO2, PM10 and SO2 were significant increase the risk of CHD, with the RRs were 0.09, 2.59, 0.31, and 6.54, respectively; CO, NO2, O3, PM10, PM2.5, and SO2 were notably increased the risk of MI， with the RRs were 0.16, 4.19, 0.76, 0.79, 0.92, and 7.49, respectively; CO, NO2, PM10, PM2.5, and SO2 were distinctly increased the risk of PHD, with the RRs were 0.14, 2.79, 0.75, 1.00, and 3.86, respectively; NO2 and SO2 significant increase the risk of hypertension, with the RRs were 1.41 and 5.94, respectively; CO, NO2, PM10, and SO2 were distinctly increased the risk of arrhythmia, with the RRs were 0.09, 2.23, 0.36, and 5.41, respectively. Furthermore, we quantify the economic losses of five major CVDs affected by air pollutants. The economic burden of air pollution on patients with CHD, hypertension, PHD, cardiac arrhythmia, and MI were 66.38, 36.58, 5.76, 5.66 5.21 million yuan, respectively.Conclusion Our study found that short-term exposure to pollutants can have a significant impact on hospital admissions for all types of CVDs in the elderly. In terms of hospitalisation rates, SO2 and NO2 had a significant effect on different types of CVDs. Moreover, we found that air pollutants cause a heavy economic burden on patients with hypertension and CHD. It follows that reducing the concentration of air pollutants is an effective way to bring potential health benefits as well as economic benefits to local residents. Government departments should actively formulate relevant policies to reduce the physical and mental damage caused by air pollution.
Keywords
