A five-year study of particulate matter (PM2.5) and cerebrovascular diseases

Manuel A. Leiva G*, Daniela A. Santibañez, Sergio Ibarra E, Patricia Matus C, Rodrigo Seguel

*Corresponding author for this work

Research output: Contribution to journalArticlepeer-review

204 Scopus citations

Abstract

Cerebrovascular accidents, or strokes, are the second leading cause of mortality and the leading cause of morbidity in both Chile and the rest of the world. However, the relationship between particulate matter pollution and strokes is not well characterized. The association between fine particle concentration and stroke admissions was studied. Data on hospital admissions due to cerebrovascular accidents were collected from the Ministry of Health. Air quality and meteorological data were taken from the Air Quality database of the Santiago Metropolitan Area. Santiago reported 33,624 stroke admissions between January 1, 2002 and December 30, 2006. PM2.5 concentration was markedly seasonal, increasing during the winter. This study found an association between PM2.5 exposure and hospital admissions for stroke; for every PM2.5 concentration increase of 10 μg m-3, the risk of emergency hospital admissions for cerebrovascular causes increased by 1.29% (95% CI 0.552%-2.03%).

Original languageEnglish
Pages (from-to)1-6
Number of pages6
JournalEnvironmental Pollution
Volume181
DOIs
StatePublished - 2013
Externally publishedYes

Bibliographical note

Funding Information:
The financial support of The Chilean Environmental Ministry (Ministerio del Medio Ambiente, MMA) is gratefully acknowledged. This study was conducted under collaboration agreement MMA-CENMA 2008-2010. The authors are also grateful to Dr. Raúl G.E. Morales S. and Dr. Richard Toro for their helpful discussions and comments. The authors greatly appreciate the time and effort given by anonymous reviewers and by the editors of Environmental Pollution in evaluating our manuscript.

Keywords

  • Air pollution
  • Cerebrovascular disease
  • Epidemiology
  • Negative binomial regression
  • Particulate matter

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