Airborne Fine Particles and Risk of Hospital Admissions for Understudied Populations: Effects by Urbanicity and Short-Term Cumulative Exposures in 708 U.S. Counties.

ABSTRACT:

Background

Evidence of health risks associated with ambient airborne fine particles in nonurban populations is extremely limited.

Objective

We estimated the risk of hospitalization associated with short-term exposures to particulate matter with an aerodynamic diameter < 2.5 μm (PM_2.5) in urban and nonurban counties with population ≥ 50,000.

Methods

We utilized a database of daily cardiovascular- and respiratory-related hospitalization rates constructed from Medicare National Claims History files (2002-2006), including 28 million Medicare beneficiaries in 708 counties. Daily PM_2.5 exposures were estimated using the Community Multiscale Air Quality (CMAQ) downscaler. We used time-series analysis of hospitalization rates and PM_2.5 to eval

SUBMITTER: Bravo MA 

PROVIDER: S-EPMC5381978 | biostudies-literature | 2017 Apr

REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature