Atmospheric environment and severe acute respiratory infections in Nanjing, China, 2018–2019

ABSTRACT

The annual burden of severe acute respiratory infection (SARI) is enormous, and environmental factors may have a vital role in respiratory infections. This study aimed to investigate the potential effects of the atmospheric environment on SARI. A time-series analysis was performed on the relationship between atmospheric environment and 136,989 SARI cases by distributed lag non-linear model. Wind speed, PM₁₀, PM_2.5, O_3, and CO exhibited differential effects at a range of lag times or exposure ranges. Air pressure, temperature, and diurnal temperature range showed risk effects in the full range. The lag effect of high pollution was stronger, appeared earlier, and lasted longer than that of low pollution. Most environmental factors had a certain non-linear lag relationship with SARI. Low wind speed and high air pollution may be increasing risk factors for SARI.

KEYWORDS:

• Biometeorology
• air pollution
• severe acute respiratory infection
• distributed lag non-linear model

Acknowledgments

The authors thank the other investigators and staff for initial collection of data.

Disclosure statement

No potential conflict of interest was reported by the author(s).

Data availability statement

Due to legal restrictions, participants in this study are not allowed to share some of their initial data publicly without authorization, and therefore cannot obtain supporting data.

Supplementary material

Supplemental data for this article can be accessed here

Additional information

Funding

This work was supported by International (Regional) Exchange Support Program of Jiangsu Health Commission in 2019 and Nanjing Medical Science and Technology Development Project [Grant number: ZKX20044].