Department of Epidemiology and Biostatistics, School of Public Health, Anhui Medical University, Hefei, Anhui, 230032, China.
Anhui Province Children's Hospital, Hefei, Anhui, 230000, China.
Environ Res. 2019 Jun;173:373-378. doi: 10.1016/j.envres.2019.03.040. Epub 2019 Mar 19.
The relationship between environmental factors and allergic rhinitis (AR) has become a focal point recently. However, few studies have investigated the adverse effects of both high relative humidity (RH) and low relative humidity. Moreover, the laged effect and disease burden of RH on AR were also neglected.
To explore the association of both high and low RH on daily AR hospital outpatients, and to quantify the corresponding disease burden attributable to RH.
In our study, we define 95th as high RH and 5th as low RH. A distributed lag non-linear model (DLNM) combined with a Poisson generalized linear regression model were applied to analyze the relationship between RH and hospital outpatients for AR. All patients were retrieved from Anhui Provincial Children's Hospital (n = 37,221) from January 2015 to December 2016. Daily meteorological and air pollutant data were collected by Hefei Meteorological Bureau and Environmental Protection Agency. Subgroup analyses were conducted by gender and occupational groups.
Acute adverse effects of high and low RH on AR were explored respectively, with an increase of daily AR outpatients when encountered high and low RH. The low RH presented a risk effect at current day and lasted up to the eighth day. However, high RH began to appear a risk effect on the fourth day. Notably, the fraction of hospital outpatients attributable to low RH was 5.22% (95% CI: 1.92%, 8.33%) and high RH was 4.07% (95% CI: 1.13%, 7.30%) in the backward perspective. Additionally, male and students apparent to be more sensitive to the effects of low RH.
This study suggests that both high and low RH are potential trigger for AR hospital outpatients in Hefei, China. Our studies might offer valuable messages to health practitioners and useful direction to decisions-makers respectively.
环境因素与过敏性鼻炎（AR）的关系已成为近期研究的焦点。然而，很少有研究调查高相对湿度（RH）和低相对湿度的不良影响。此外，RH 对 AR 的滞后效应和疾病负担也被忽视了。
探讨高、低 RH 对每日 AR 门诊患者的影响，并量化 RH 造成的相应疾病负担。
本研究将 95 百分位定义为高 RH，5 百分位定义为低 RH。采用分布滞后非线性模型（DLNM）结合泊松广义线性回归模型，分析 RH 与 AR 门诊患者的关系。所有患者均来自安徽省儿童医院（n=37221），时间为 2015 年 1 月至 2016 年 12 月。每日气象和空气污染物数据由合肥市气象局和环境保护局收集。按性别和职业进行亚组分析。
分别探讨了高、低 RH 对 AR 的急性不良影响，发现高、低 RH 时每日 AR 门诊患者人数增加。低 RH 在当前日呈现风险效应，并持续到第 8 天。而高 RH 则从第 4 天开始出现风险效应。值得注意的是，在回溯视角下，低 RH 导致的门诊患者比例为 5.22%（95%CI：1.92%，8.33%），高 RH 为 4.07%（95%CI：1.13%，7.30%）。此外，男性和学生似乎对低 RH 的影响更为敏感。
本研究表明，高、低 RH 均可能是中国合肥 AR 门诊患者的潜在触发因素。我们的研究可能分别为卫生保健工作者提供有价值的信息，并为决策者提供有用的指导。
