Patnaik Jennifer L, Dye-Robinson Amy, James Katherine A, Kahook Malik Y
Department of Ophthalmology, University of Colorado School of Medicine, Aurora, CO, USA.
Department of Environmental and Occupational Health, Colorado School of Public Health, Aurora, CO, USA.
Clin Ophthalmol. 2024 Nov 13;18:3263-3270. doi: 10.2147/OPTH.S485199. eCollection 2024.
The World Health Organization has declared climate change to be "the single biggest health threat facing humanity", yet there are limited studies on the impact of climate change-related air pollution on ocular health.
To explore associations between ocular surface irritation and allergy-related daily outpatient office visits with daily ambient particulate matter (PM) levels in the Denver Metropolitan Area.
Daily visit counts of ophthalmology outpatient offices were obtained from an academic health center (October 1, 2015 to January 27, 2023). Daily ambient average concentrations of PM ≤ 10 µm in diameter (PM) and 2.5 micrometers or less in diameter (PM) were obtained. Data were analyzed using distributed lag nonlinear models while accounting for the cumulative lagged effects of PM and PM for visits. Modifications due to temperature were assessed using stratified models.
There were 144,313 ocular surface irritation and allergy visits to ophthalmic clinics during the study period. Daily visit counts increased with increasing daily ambient PM and PM concentrations. Five-day cumulative ambient PM concentrations at 80, 90, 100, and 110 µg/m showed higher rate ratios at each level from 1.77 (95% CI: 1.71, 1.84) at concentration of 80 to 2.20 (95% CI: 2.09, 2.30) for concentration of 110 µg/m. Similarly, the visit rate ratios increased as the daily PM concentration increased, but this gradient effect was not significantly higher as the concentration increased. The effect of PM was higher on days when the temperature was below the average. Temperature did not affect the association between daily visit counts and PM.
This study found that ambient PM increased the rate of ophthalmology visits due to ocular surface irritation and allergies. Most importantly, this association increased in magnitude with higher ambient PM concentrations. Additional studies are required to fully understand the effects of climate change-related stressors on ocular health.
世界卫生组织已宣布气候变化是“人类面临的最大健康威胁”，然而关于气候变化相关空气污染对眼部健康影响的研究有限。
探讨丹佛都会区眼表刺激和过敏相关的每日门诊就诊次数与每日环境颗粒物（PM）水平之间的关联。
从一家学术健康中心获取眼科门诊办公室的每日就诊计数（2015年10月1日至2023年1月27日）。获取直径≤10 µm（PM）和直径2.5微米及以下（PM）的每日环境平均浓度。在考虑PM和PM对就诊的累积滞后效应的同时，使用分布滞后非线性模型对数据进行分析。使用分层模型评估温度引起的修正。
研究期间眼科诊所共有144,313次眼表刺激和过敏就诊。每日就诊计数随每日环境PM和PM浓度的增加而增加。80、90、100和110 µg/m的五日累积环境PM浓度在每个水平显示出更高的率比，从浓度80时的1.77（95%CI：1.71，1.84）到浓度110 µg/m时的2.20（95%CI：2.09，2.30）。同样，就诊率比随每日PM浓度增加而增加，但随着浓度增加，这种梯度效应并未显著升高。当温度低于平均温度时，PM的影响更大。温度不影响每日就诊计数与PM之间的关联。
本研究发现环境PM增加了因眼表刺激和过敏导致的眼科就诊率。最重要的是，这种关联随着环境PM浓度升高而增强。需要进一步研究以充分了解气候变化相关应激源对眼部健康的影响。
