Short-Term Effects of Ambient Air Pollution on Chronic Obstructive Pulmonary Disease Admissions in Jiuquan, China

Recent findings indicate that air pollution contributes to the onset and advancement of chronic obstructive pulmonary disease (COPD). Nevertheless, there is insufficient research indicating that air pollution is linked to COPD in the region of inland northwest China. Daily hospital admission records for COPD, air pollutant levels, and meteorological factor information were collected in Jiuquan for this study between 1 January 2018 and 31 December 2019. We employed a distributed lag non-linear model (DLNM) integrated with the generalized additive model (GAM) to assess the association between air pollution and hospital admissions for COPD with single lag days from lag0 to lag7 and multiday moving average lag days from lag01 to lag07. For example, the pollutant concentration on the current day was lag0, and on the prior 7th day was lag7. The present and previous 7-day moving average pollutant concentration was lag07. Gender, age, and season-specific stratified analyses were also carried out. It is noteworthy that the delayed days exhibited a different pattern, and the magnitude of associations varied. For NO₂ and CO, obvious associations with hospitalizations for COPD were found at lag1, lag01-lag07, and lag03-lag07, with the biggest associations at lag05 and lag06 [RR = 1.015 (95%CI: 1.008, 1.023) for NO₂, RR = 2.049 (95%CI: 1.416, 2.966) for CO], while only SO₂ at lag02 was appreciably linked to hospitalizations for COPD [1.167 (95%CI: 1.009, 1.348)]. In contrast, short-term encounters with PM_2.5, PM₁₀, and O₃ were found to have no significant effects on COPD morbidity. The lag effects of NO₂ and CO were stronger than those of PM_2.5 and PM₁₀. Males and those aged 65 years or older were more vulnerable to air pollution. When it came to the seasons, the impacts appeared to be more pronounced in the cold season. In conclusion, short-term encounters with NO₂ and CO were significantly correlated with COPD hospitalization in males and the elderly (≥65).