Associations of short-term exposure to ambient air pollutants with emergency ambulance calls for the exacerbation of essential arterial hypertension

Abstract

We investigated the association between daily emergency ambulance calls (EAC) for elevated blood pressure that occurred during the time intervals of 8:00–13:59, 14:00–21:59, and 22:00–7:59, and exposure to CO, PM₁₀, and ozone. We used Poisson regression to explore the association between the risk of EAC and short-term variation of pollutants, adjusting for seasonality and weather variables. Before noon, the risk was associated with an interquartile range (IQR) (7.9 μg/m³) increase in PM₁₀ at lag 2–4 days below the median (RR = 1.08, p = 0.031) and with an IQR (0.146 mg/m³) increase in CO at lag 6–7 below the median (RR = 1.05, p = 0.028). During 14:00–21:59, the risk was associated with an IQR (18.8 μg/m³) increase in PM₁₀ on the previous day below the median (RR = 1.04, p = 0.031). At night, EAC were negatively affected by lower O₃ (lag 0–2) below the median (per IQR decrease RR = 1.10, p = 0.018) and a higher PM₁₀ at lag 0–1 above the median for the elderly (RR = 1.07, p = 0.030).

Keywords:

• Carbon monoxide
• particulate matter
• ozone
• emergency ambulance calls
• exacerbation of essential arterial hypertension

Acknowledgments

We acknowledge the contribution of Kaunas city ambulance involved in the registration of cardiovascular emergency admissions and the formation of the computer database.