Association between Consecutive Ambient Air Pollution and Chronic Obstructive Pulmonary Disease Hospitalization: Time Series Study during 2015-2017 in Chengdu China

Abstract

This paper investigates the association between consecutive ambient air pollution and Chronic Obstructive Pulmonary Disease (COPD) hospitalization in Chengdu China. The three-year (2015-2017) time series data for both ambient air pollutant concentrations and COPD hospitalizations in Chengdu are approved for the study. The big data statistic analysis shows that Air Quality Index (AQI) exceeded the lighted air polluted level in Chengdu region are mainly attributed to particulate matters (i.e., PM2.5 and PM10). The time series study for consecutive ambient air pollutant concentrations reveal that AQI, PM2.5, and PM10 are significantly positive correlated, especially when the number of consecutive polluted days is greater than nine days. The daily COPD hospitalizations for every 10 μg/m3 increase in PM2.5 and PM10 indicate that consecutive ambient air pollution can lead to an appearance of an elevation of COPD admissions, and also present that dynamic responses before and after the peak admission are different. Support Vector Regression (SVR) is then used to describe the dynamics of COPD hospitalizations to consecutive ambient air pollution. These findings will be further developed for region specific, hospital early notifications of COPD in responses to consecutive ambient air pollution.