Effect of Short-Term Exposure to Air Pollutants on Hospital Admissions for End-Stage Renal Disease Patients Undergoing Hemodialysis

  Objective  To evaluate the association between short-term exposure to air pollutants of end-stage renal disease (ESRD) patients on maintenance hemodialysis and the number of daily hospital admissions.

  Methods  The data on hospitalizations were obtained from the database of the municipal Urban Employees' Basic Medical Insurance and Urban Residents' Basic Medical Insurance of a city in Southwest China. Single and multiple pollutant generalized additive models were utilized to estimate the effect of air pollutants (CO, NO₂, O₃, PM₁₀, PM_2.5, and SO₂) on patient admissions after the lag time of different numbers of days. In addition, subgroup analyses stratified by sex, age, PM_2.5 and PM₁₀ concentration thresholds, seasonality, and comorbidity status for cardiovascular diseases and hypertension were conducted.

  Results  In the single pollutant models, the pollutants significantly associated with patient admissions and the corresponding lag time of the strongest association were as follows, every time CO increased by 0.1 mg/m³, there was a 2.39% increase (95% confidence interval CI: 0.96%-3.83%) in patient admissions after 7 days of lag time; every time NO₂, O₃, PM_2.5, PM₁₀, and SO₂ increased by 10 μg/m³, patient admissions increased by 4.02% (95% CI: 1.21%-6.91%) after 7 days of lag time, 3.57% (95% CI: 0.78%-6.44%) after 0-4 days of lag time, 2.00% (95% CI: 1.07%-2.93%) after 6 days of lag time, 1.19% (95% CI: 0.51%-1.88%) after 7 days of lag time, and 8.37% (95% CI: 3.08%-13.93%) after 7 days of lag time, respectively. In the multiple pollutant model, every time O₃ and PM_2.5 increased by 10 μg/m³, there was an increase of 3.18% (95% CI: 0.34%-6.09%) in daily patient admissions after 0-4 days of lag time and an increase of 1.85% (95% CI: 0.44%-3.28%) after 7 days of lag time. Furthermore, subgroup analyses showed that seasonality, the severity of air pollution, and patients' comorbidities might be the effect modifiers for the association between ambient air pollution and hospital admissions in ESRD patients receiving maintenance hemodialysis.

  Conclusion  Air pollution is closely associated with hospital admissions in ESRD patients undergoing maintenance hemodialysis and the strength of this association varies according to seasonality, the severity of air pollution, and patients’ status of comorbidities.