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KMID : 1138720220480030079
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Korean Public Health Research
2022 Volume.48 No. 3 p.79 ~ p.92
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The association between ambient air pollution and outpatient department visits for allergic rhinitis in Busan, South Korea
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Jeong Su-Bin
Lee Hye-Won
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Abstract
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Objectives: This study was conducted to investigate whether outdoor air pollution levels in Busan have short-term effects on outpatient department(OPD) visits for allergic rhinitis.
Methods: We identified 25,523 patients who visited OPD for allergic rhinitis as a primary disease in Busan from the national health insurance database between 2013 and 2017. We conducted a quasi-Poisson regression as a time series analysis using generalized additive models(GAM) to examine the association between air pollutants(particulate matter less than 10μm, particulate matter less than 2.5μm, sulfur dioxide, nitrogen dioxide, ozone, carbon monoxide) and OPD visits for allergic rhinitis. We considered the lag effect of air pollution up to 7 days and performed subgroup analyses by age, sex and season.
Results: We found a significant positive association between O3 and OPD visits for allergic rhinitis at lag2(percentage change in relative risk[RR]=1.75%; 95% CI: 0.41%~3.11%), and all moving-average lags. The best-fitting lag structure was lag0~6(percentage change in RR=3.67%; 95% CI: 1.11%~6.29%). Exposure to PM2.5 also showed the association with OPD visits for allergic rhinits(percentage change in RR=1.76%; 95% CI: 0.04%~3.52%, lag0~7), although the PM2.5 effect became non-significant in two pollutant analyses. In stratified analyses, stronger associations were found in patients aged 10~19 years, females, fall and winter.
Conclusions: Our results suggest that exposure to O3 is associated with OPD visits for allergic rhinitis. To manage the prevalence of allergic rhinitis related to O3 exposure, it is necessary to actively prepare O3 reduction measures through continuous O3 monitoring.
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KEYWORD
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Allergic rhinitis, air pollution, ozone, outpatient department visit, generalized additive models
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