Effects of ambient air pollution on daily hospital admissions for respiratory and cardiovascular diseases in Bangkok, Thailand

Background: Although health effects of air pollutants are well documented inmany countries especially in North America and Western Europe, few studies have been conducted in Thailand where pollution mix, weather conditions, and demographic characteristics are different. The present study aimed to investigate the effects of ambient air pollution on hospital admissions for cardiovascular and respiratory diseases in Bangkok, Thailand. Methods: We obtained daily air pollution concentration (O-3, NO2, SO2, PM10, and CO) and weather variablemonitored in Bangkok from January 2006 to December 2014. Daily hospital admissions for cardiovascular and respiratory diseases were obtained from the National Health Security Office during the study period. A time-series analysis with generalized linear model was used to examine the effects of air pollution on hospital admissions by controlling for long-term trend and other potential confounders. The effect modification by age (0-14 years, 15-64 years, >= 65 years) and gender was also examined. Results: An increase of 10 mu g/m(3) in O-3, NO2, SO2, PM10, and 1 mg/m(3) in CO at lag 0-1 day was associated with a 0.14% (95% CI: -0.34 to 0.63), 1.28% (0.87 to 1.69), 8.42% (6.16 to 10.74), 1.04% (0.68 to 1.41) and 6.69% (4.33 to 9.11) increase in cardiovascular admission, respectively; and 0.69% (95% CI: 0.18 to 1.21), 1.42% (0.98 to 1.85), 4.49% (2.22 to 6.80), 1.18% (0.79 to 1.57) and 7.69% (5.20 to 10.23) increase in respiratory admission, respectively. The elderly (>= 65 years) seemed to be themost susceptible group to the effect of air pollution, whereas the effect estimate for male and female was not significantly different. Conclusions: Results from this study contributed the evidence to support the effects of air pollution (O-3, NO2, SO2, PM10, and CO) on hospital admissions for cardiovascular and respiratory diseases, which might be useful for public health intervention in Thailand. (C) 2018 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.