Grantee Research Project Results

Airborne particles are a risk factor for hospital admissions for heart and lung disease.

Citation:

Zanobetti A, Schwartz J, Dockery DW. Airborne particles are a risk factor for hospital admissions for heart and lung disease. Environmental Health Perspectives 2000;108(11):1071-1077.

Abstract:

We examined the association between particulate matter ≤ 10 µm; (PM10) and hospital admission for heart and lung disease in ten U.S. cities. Our three goals were to determine whether there was an association, to estimate how the association was distributed across various lags between exposure and response, and to examine socioeconomic factors and copollutants as effect modifiers and confounders. We fit a Poisson regression model in each city to allow for city-specific differences and then combined the city-specific results. We examined potential confounding by a meta-regression of the city-specific results. Using a model that considered simultaneously the effects of PM10 up to lags of 5 days, we found a 2.5% [95% confidence interval (CI), 1.8-3.3] increase in chronic obstructive pulmonary disease, a 1.95% (CI, 1.5-2.4) increase in pneumonia, and a 1.27% increase (CI, 1-1.5) in CVD for a 10 µg/m3 increase in PM10. We found similar effect estimates using the mean of PM10 on the same and previous day, but lower estimates using only PM10 for a single day. When using only days with PM10 < 50 µg/m3, the effect size increased by ≥ 20% for all three outcomes. These effects are not modified by poverty rates or minority status. The results were stable when controlling for confounding by sulfur dioxide, ozone, and carbon monoxide. These results are consistent with previous epidemiology and recent mechanistic studies in animals and humans.