Associations of short-term exposure to air pollution with risk of pulmonary space-occupying lesions morbidity based on a time-series study

Abstract

Background: Pulmonary space-occupying lesions are typical chronic pulmonary diseases that contribute significantly to healthcare resource use and impose a large disease burden in China. A time-series ecological trend study was conducted to investigate the associations between environmental factors and hospitalizations for pulmonary space-occupying lesions in North of China from 2014 to 2022.

Methods: The DLNM was used to quantify the association of environmental factors with lung cancer admissions. The heating-, age-, gender-, malignancy-specific effects were further estimated to identify the susceptible groups.

Results: During the study period, fluctuations in air pollutants and climate conditions closely mirrored changes in hospitalizations for pulmonary space-occupying lesions. Totally, the distributed lag surface showed clear positive associations between pulmonary tumor hospitalization and PM_2.5 (RR_lag30: 1.000912; 95%CI: 1.000076, 1.00175), PM₁₀ (RR_lag30: 1.002246; 95%CI: 1.000474, 1.004021), SO₂ (RR_lag30: 1.002714; 95%CI: 1.001071, 1.004414), CO (RR_lag30: 1.002231; 95%CI: 1.000592, 1.003873). Additionally, the associations between air pollutants and hospitalizations for pulmonary space-occupying lesions were significantly stronger during the heating season. Population aged 65 or older, females and those diagnosed with malignancies were more vulnerable for the risk of pulmonary space-occupying lesions diseases due to air pollution exposure.

Conclusions: The present study illustrated risk and burden for pulmonary space-occupying lesions hospitalization associated with air pollution, especially among population aged ≥ 65, or female.

Keywords: Air pollution; Elderly; Female; Heating season; Malignancies; Pulmonary space-occupying lesions; Time-series study.