Dirección General de Salud Pública. Gobierno de Canarias, Alfonso XIII, 4, 35003 Las Palmas de Gran Canaria, Spain; Spanish Consortium for Research on Epidemiology and Public Health (CIBERESP), Instituto de Salud Carlos III, C/ Monforte de Lemos 3-5, 28029 Madrid, Spain.
Dirección General de Salud Pública. Gobierno de Canarias, Alfonso XIII, 4, 35003 Las Palmas de Gran Canaria, Spain; FISABIO-UJI-Universitat de València, Epidemiology and Environmental Health Joint Research Unit, Avenida de Catalunya 21, 46020 Valencia, Spain.
Arch Bronconeumol. 2021 Jul;57(7):464-470. doi: 10.1016/j.arbr.2020.03.032.
Saharan dust meets the Canary Islands at the beginning of its westward path across the North Atlantic, exceeding the European daily levels for PM10; for this reason, their two provincial capital cities, constitute optimal sites where to evaluate the health effects of this natural event.
To assess the short-term association between Saharan Dust Days (SDDs) and respiratory morbidity in the two capital cities.
We carried out a time-series analysis with daily emergency hospital admissions due to all respiratory system diseases, chronic obstructive pulmonary disease (COPD) and asthma between 2001 and 2005, assessing the independent effect of SDDs, defined according to the application of the methodology accepted by the European Environmental Office. We also examined accumulated effect, and some other specific SDDs' features.
We found a short-term association between SDDs and the increase in admission risk for the three outcomes during concurrent SDDs, compared to non-SDDs, that spread from 0 to 5th day: 22.6% (95% confidence interval [CI], 10.4, 36.0) for all respiratory diseases and 29.9% (95%CI: 6.6, 58.4) for COPD in Santa Cruz de Tenerife, and 33.4% (95%CI: -2.1,82.0) for asthma in Las Palmas de Gran Canaria. We obtained a robust association when Saharan dust transported at low altitude, when SDDs belonged to long episodes (≥5days), from the fifth SDD onwards and those SDDs with medium (50<PM<150) or high (≥150) PM10 levels.
We found evidence that SDDs carry a risk of emergency hospital admission from respiratory diseases in the Canary Islands.
撒哈拉尘埃在其向西穿越北大西洋的途中，在抵达加那利群岛时达到顶峰，其浓度超过了欧洲每日 PM10 水平；出于这个原因，这两个省会城市成为了评估该自然事件对健康影响的理想地点。
评估撒哈拉尘埃日（SDD）与两个首府城市呼吸系统疾病发病率之间的短期关联。
我们进行了一项时间序列研究，纳入了 2001 年至 2005 年期间所有呼吸系统疾病、慢性阻塞性肺疾病（COPD）和哮喘的每日急诊住院病例，评估了根据欧洲环境办公室认可的方法应用定义的 SDD 的独立影响。我们还检查了累积效应和其他一些特定 SDD 特征。
我们发现，与非 SDD 日相比，在同期 SDD 日，SDD 与三种结局的住院风险增加之间存在短期关联，这种关联从第 0 天到第 5 天持续存在：圣克鲁斯-德特内里费的所有呼吸系统疾病增加 22.6%（95%置信区间 [CI]，10.4，36.0），COPD 增加 29.9%（95%CI：6.6，58.4），而在大加那利岛拉斯帕尔马斯，哮喘增加 33.4%（95%CI：-2.1，82.0）。当撒哈拉尘埃以低海拔输送、SDD 属于长时段（≥5 天）、从第 5 个 SDD 开始以及 SDD 中 PM10 水平处于中等（50<PM<150）或高（≥150）时，我们得到了一个稳健的关联。
我们有证据表明，在加那利群岛，SDD 会带来呼吸系统疾病急诊住院的风险。
