Wang Sohee, Jeong Seungpil, Ha Eunhee
Department of Environmental Medicine, Ewha Womans University College of Medicine, Seoul, Korea.
Graduate Program in System Health Science and Engineering, Ewha Womans University College of Medicine, Seoul, Korea.
Ewha Med J. 2025 Jul;48(3):e43. doi: 10.12771/emj.2025.00640. Epub 2025 Jul 23.
This study aimed to assess the spatiotemporal associations between air pollution and emergency room visits for cardiovascular and cerebrovascular diseases in South Korea using a graph autoencoder (GAE). A multivariate graph-based approach was used to uncover seasonal and regional variations in pollutant-disease relationships.
We collected monthly data from 2022 to 2023, including concentrations of 6 air pollutants (SO2, NO2, O3, CO, PM10, and PM2.5) and emergency room visits for 4 disease types: cardiac arrest, myocardial infarction, ischemic stroke, and hemorrhagic stroke. Pearson correlation coefficients were used to construct adjacency matrices, which, along with normalized feature matrices, were used as inputs to the GAE. The model was trained separately for each month and region to estimate the strength of pollutant-disease associations.
The pollutant-disease network structures exhibited clear seasonal variations. In winter, strong associations were observed between O3, NO2, and all disease outcomes. In spring, PM2.5 and PM10 were strongly linked to cardiac and stroke-related visits. These connections weakened during summer but became more pronounced in autumn, especially for NO2 and cardiac arrest. Urban areas displayed denser and stronger associations than non-urban areas.
Our findings underscore the necessity for season- and region-specific air quality management strategies. In winter, focused control of O3 and NO2 is needed in urban areas, while in spring, PM mitigation is required in urban and selected rural regions. Autumn NO2 control may be especially beneficial in non-urban areas. Spatiotemporally tailored interventions could reduce the burden of air pollution-related emergency room visits.
本研究旨在使用图自动编码器（GAE）评估韩国空气污染与心血管和脑血管疾病急诊就诊之间的时空关联。采用基于多元图的方法来揭示污染物与疾病关系的季节性和区域差异。
我们收集了2022年至2023年的月度数据，包括6种空气污染物（二氧化硫、二氧化氮、臭氧、一氧化碳、可吸入颗粒物（PM10）和细颗粒物（PM2.5））的浓度以及4种疾病类型（心脏骤停、心肌梗死、缺血性中风和出血性中风）的急诊就诊情况。使用皮尔逊相关系数构建邻接矩阵，该矩阵与归一化特征矩阵一起用作GAE的输入。针对每个月和每个区域分别训练模型，以估计污染物与疾病关联的强度。
污染物与疾病的网络结构呈现出明显的季节性变化。在冬季，观察到臭氧、二氧化氮与所有疾病结果之间存在强烈关联。在春季，PM2.5和PM10与心脏和中风相关就诊有很强的联系。这些联系在夏季减弱，但在秋季变得更加明显，尤其是二氧化氮与心脏骤停之间的联系。城市地区的关联比非城市地区更密集、更强。
我们的研究结果强调了制定针对季节和区域的空气质量管理策略的必要性。在冬季，城市地区需要重点控制臭氧和二氧化氮，而在春季，城市和部分农村地区需要减轻颗粒物污染。在非城市地区，秋季控制二氧化氮可能特别有益。根据时空情况量身定制的干预措施可以减轻与空气污染相关的急诊就诊负担。
