Air Pollution and Hospital Admissions for Pneumonia in a Subtropical City: Taipei, Taiwan

Abstract

This study was undertaken to determine whether there was an association between air pollutant levels and hospital admissions for pneumonia in Taipei, Taiwan. Hospital admissions for pneumonia and ambient air pollution data for Taipei were obtained for the period from 1996–2004. The relative risk of hospital admission was estimated using a case-crossover approach, controlling for weather variables, day of the week, seasonality, and long-term time trends. In the single pollutant models, on warm days (>23°C) statistically significant positive associations were found in all pollutants. On cool days (<23°C), all pollutants were significantly associated with pneumonia admissions except SO₂. For the two-pollutant model, O₃ and NO₂ were significant in combination with each of the other 4 pollutants on warm days. On cool days, PM_{1 0}, CO, and O₃ remained statistically significant in all the two-pollutant models. This study provides evidence that higher levels of ambient air pollutants increase the risk of hospital admissions for pneumonia.

This study was partly supported by a grant from the National Science Council, Executive Yuan, Taiwan (NSC-95-2314-B-037-070-MY2). This study is based in part on data from the National Insurance Research Database provided by the Bureau of National Health Insurance, Department of Health and managed by National Health Research Institutes. The interpretation and conclusions contained herein do not represent those of Bureau of National Health Insurance, Department of Health or National Health Research Institutes.