Exposure to fine and coarse fractions of particulate material and hospitalizations for respiratory diseases in children

Abstract

Scientific studies prove that air pollution is harmful to human health. It is also known that children are even more sensitive to pollution than adults, due to the immaturity of their immune system, among other causes. The increase in the number of hospitalizations in public hospitals due to air pollution generates costs and increases the public expenses that could be allocated to other emergency areas. However, the number of studies analyzing this effect in midsize cities is scarce. The present study aims to identify the role of exposure to fine and coarse fractions of particulate matter in hospitalizations for respiratory diseases (Cid-10-J00.0 to J99.9) in children under 9 years old in the city of São José Of Rio Preto, analyzing which fraction is most harmful to health. Afterwards, the cost of these hospitalizations for the public health system will be quantified in order to understand the relationship between the reduction of the concentration of particulates and the reduction of costs. Thus, it will be possible to evaluate how much the municipality could save if air quality is improved. An ecological study of time series will be carried out, having as data source the Department of Informatics of the Unified Health System (DATASUS) and the Environmental Sanitation Technology Company (CETESB), with age groups up to 9 years old, in all genders, in the period from 01.01.2015 to 06.30.2016. To analyze the association between exposure to pollutants and number of hospitalizations, will be utilized the generalized linear model of Poisson Regression. Delays of up to 7 days will be considered since the effects of exposure to the pollutants may take more than a day to cause symptoms. Models with an isolated pollutant and all pollutants simultaneously will be developed and adjusted by O3, NO2, temperature, relative humidity, days of the week and long-term trend. The cost of hospitalizations will be reduced if the concentrations of these pollutants are reduced. (AU)