Pönkä A
Helsinki City Centre for the Environment, Finland.
World Health Stat Q. 1995;48(2):126-31.
Several studies from various countries within the last decade have shown that ambient air pollutants cause short-term health effects in lower concentrations than believed earlier. Obtaining reliable and comprehensive health and environmental data is difficult but is the basic prerequisite for these studies. Linkage of data on air pollution and on several health effects has been conducted in Helsinki since the late 1980s, using time series analysis. The uniform population, small socioeconomic differences, a practically free national health care system with high coverage and extensive health, pollution and meteorological data render such studies possible. These kinds of local studies are necessary because many confounders or modifiers cause problems for the generalization of results of studies from other locations. Internal standardization, recommendations and guidelines concerning the methodology of linkage studies are needed to save work and money and to ensure the reliability of results.
过去十年里，来自不同国家的多项研究表明，环境空气污染物在比之前认为的更低浓度下就会造成短期健康影响。获取可靠且全面的健康与环境数据颇具难度，但这是这些研究的基本前提。自20世纪80年代末以来，赫尔辛基一直利用时间序列分析对空气污染数据与若干健康影响数据进行关联分析。统一的人口、较小的社会经济差异、几乎免费且覆盖范围广的国家医疗保健系统以及广泛的健康、污染和气象数据使得此类研究成为可能。开展这类本地研究很有必要，因为许多混杂因素或修正因素会给其他地区研究结果的推广带来问题。需要进行内部标准化以及有关关联研究方法的建议和指南，以节省人力和资金，并确保结果的可靠性。
