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SENSI – Acute Health Effects
from Air Pollution in Sensitive Subgroups.
Several studies in the last decade
have confirmed that daily variations in ambient air pollution levels are
associated with daily variations in hospital admissions as well as mortality.
Recent studies have shown that the effect per unit is at least as strong at low
levels as in the high level range and if these results can be confirmed there is
a high potential for significantly improving public health by reducing air
pollution in Swedish cities. It is however still unclear in which population
segments the health improvements can be made by reducing pollution levels and
how persons with a history of treatment for different diseases are affected by
the pollutants. The results from the proposed study will be important for
identification of sensitive subgroups and will shed some light on the mechanisms
that behind acute effects from air pollution.
The aim of the study is to
quantify the relationship between short time variations in air pollution levels,
hospital admissions for cardiopulmonary disease and mortality in groups of
individuals defined by disease status in the time preceding the studied health
event.
The study population consists of
all inhabitants of Stockholm county and the study period is the 1990:s All
inhabitants will be assigned exposure to air pollution from one or more central
monitoring stations, measuring PM10, PM2,5, CO, NO2,
SO2 and/or O3. By matching the National Patient Registry
for Hospital Care to the National Cause of Death Registry we will be able to
reconstruct the medical history for each person in the study population who dies.
Using this information we will be able to construct sub populations of
individuals that are potentially sensitive to the effects of air pollution and
perform analyses of the association between daily variations in air pollution
and mortality. Similarly, we will reconstruct the medical history for everyone
admitted to a hospital for cardiopulmonary disease and investigate the relation
between air pollution and hospital admission in potentially sensitive groups.
The associations will be investigated in groups of persons never previously
treated and in groups treated close in time as well as long time before the
heath event. The results from the study will be published in the scientific
literature and presented at scientific conferences internationally as well as in
Sweden.
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