Department of Preventive Medicine, Seoul National University College of Medicine, Seoul, Republic of Korea.
Department of Preventive Medicine, Chungnam National University College of Medicine, Republic of Korea.
Chemosphere. 2021 Jun;272:129619. doi: 10.1016/j.chemosphere.2021.129619. Epub 2021 Jan 11.
Although an association of fine particulate matter (PM) with asthma incidence has been assumed, there is insufficient evidence regarding the effect of long-term exposure to PM on incident asthma among elderly adults.
This study aimed to investigate an association between long-term exposure to PM and incident asthma among elderly adults in South Korea.
Adults ≥65 years of age (n = 1,220,645) who did not visit hospitals for asthma during a washout period (between 2008 and 2010) were followed up until 2016 using data from the National Health Insurance System in South Korea. Incident asthma was defined as the number of patients with a primary diagnostic code of asthma who visited hospitals more than twice. We linked the health data with district-level PM concentrations and estimated hazard ratios (HRs) and 95% confidence intervals (CIs) for incident asthma after adjusting for potential confounders in time-varying Cox proportional hazard models.
Over 5,942,256 person-years, 54,522 patients developed asthma, with an incidence of 9.2 cases/1000 person-years. A 10 μg/m increase in the 36-month mean PM concentration was significantly associated with a 9% increase in incident asthma (HR = 1.09, 95% CI: 1.04-1.14). This association was found to be robust for different definitions of incident asthma and washout periods.
Long-term exposure to PM was associated with the incidence of asthma in elderly adults. This finding provides evidence of an association between PM and adult-onset asthma.
虽然人们认为细颗粒物（PM）与哮喘发病有关，但关于老年人长期暴露于 PM 对哮喘发病的影响，证据不足。
本研究旨在调查韩国老年人长期暴露于 PM 与哮喘发病之间的关系。
纳入年龄≥65 岁（n=1,220,645）、在洗脱期（2008 年至 2010 年期间）内未因哮喘就诊的成年人，使用韩国国家健康保险系统的数据进行随访，随访时间直至 2016 年。哮喘发病定义为因哮喘首次就诊、且就诊次数≥2 次的患者人数。我们将健康数据与地区水平的 PM 浓度相关联，并在时间变化的 Cox 比例风险模型中调整潜在混杂因素后，估计哮喘发病的风险比（HR）和 95%置信区间（CI）。
在 5,942,256 人年期间，有 54,522 例患者发生哮喘，发病率为 9.2 例/1000 人年。36 个月平均 PM 浓度每增加 10 μg/m，哮喘发病的风险增加 9%（HR=1.09，95%CI：1.04-1.14）。不同的哮喘发病定义和洗脱期都得到了相似的结果。
长期暴露于 PM 与老年人哮喘发病有关。这一发现为 PM 与成人发病哮喘之间的关联提供了证据。
