A decreased impact of air pollution on hospital pneumonia visits during COVID-19 outbreak in northeastern Thailand

Abstract

Background The coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) pandemic had effects on changes in people, society, and pollutant sources. This was a unique research opportunity to assess the effects on the risk of pneumonia resulted from the changes in air pollution and personal hygiene regarding city lockdown. Methods This study, we estimated time-series relative risks (RRs) of pneumonia (n=94,288) associated with PM 10 , PM 2.5 , NO 2 , and O 3 in Khon Kaen province and its vicinity, using Poison regression with generalized additive model and compared air pollutant-associated risk of pneumonia before vs. during the COVID-19 outbreak [2018–2021]. Results During the COVID-19 period, pneumonia cases, PM 2.5 , PM 10 , and NO 2 levels were lower than those before the COVID-19 but the O 3 level was significantly higher. The single-pollutant analyses showed that the increase in PM 10 , PM 2.5 , and NO 2 were significantly associated with pneumonia risks at single-day lag 0 in the earlier two years (2018–2019). For multi-pollutant analyses, there were higher RRs in PM 2.5 at lag 0 [RR =1.078, 95% confidence interval (CI): 1.004 to 1.157], lag 4 (RR =1.054, 95% CI: 1.011 to 1.098) and lag 5 (RR =1.090, 95% CI: 1.021 to 1.165) and for all cumulative-day lags, greatest was at lag 0–5 (RR =1.314, 95% CI: 1.200 to 1.439) before the COVID-19 period while there were lower pneumonia RRs of a 10-µg/m 3 increase in PM 2.5 at single-day lag 1 (RR =1.064, 95% CI: 1.002 to 1.130) and for all cumulative-day lags, greatest was at lag 0–5 (RR =1.201, 95% CI: 1.073 to 1.344) during the COVID-19 outbreak. Multi-pollutant of NO 2 significantly increased pneumonia risk in cumulative day exposure before the COVID-19 outbreak at lag 0–3 (RR =1.050, 95% CI: 1.001 to 1.100). It was significantly greater than that risk during the outbreak. Conclusions This study revealed that the lockdown measures to control COVID-19 were effective in improving air quality and lowering associated pneumonia risk. These findings would help raise awareness about measures and policies to preserve the air quality to increase respiratory health benefits.