Air Pollution and Hospital Admission for Epilepsy in Kerman, Iran

Abstract

Background: This study aimed to investigate the relation between air pollution and epilepsy admissions in Kerman, Iran. Methods: In this ecological study, the concentrations of ambient air pollutants and meteorological data were obtained from Kerman Environmental Protection Agency and Kerman Meteorology Organization, respectively. Additionally, epilepsy admission data were obtained from Kerman’s Shafa hospital epilepsy registry. Generalized additive models with lags up to 7 days were used to estimate rate ratios (RRs). Results: Within 2008 to 2020, 894 epilepsy admissions occurred in Kerman, 498 cases (55.7%) of whom were male. The strongest relations of epilepsy admission were observed in the over 59-year group for carbon monoxide (CO) in lag 0 (RR = 2.1455, 95% CI: 1.5823 - 2.9091), nitrogen dioxide (NO2) in lag 0 (RR = 1.0409, 95% CI: 1.0282 - 1.0537), and particulate matter under 2.5 microns (PM2.5) in lag 5 (RR = 1.0157, 95% CI: 1.0062 - 1.0252). There were also significant associations for particulate matter under 10 microns (PM10) in the under 18-year group in lag 2 (RR = 1.0064, 95% CI: 1.0029 - 1.0098), ozone in lag 0 (RR = 0.9671, 95% CI: 0.9581 - 0.9761), and sulfur dioxide in lag 5 (RR = 0.9937, 95% CI: 0.9891 - 0.9983). Conclusions: Exposure to CO, NO2, PM2.5, or PM10 air pollutants might be a risk factor for epilepsy admissions in Kerman. Epilepsy patients should better stay away from exposure to polluted air. Staying at home on polluted days or residing in areas with less air pollution might be an option.

Association of outdoor air and noise pollution with unprovoked seizures and new onset epilepsy: A systematic review and meta‐analysis

“…33 Therefore, eight studies were eligible for inclusion in the meta-analysis (Figure 1), and they all focused on the association between short-term exposure to air pollutants and seizures. 9,10,18,[34][35][36][37][38] The pollutants that were assessed in these eight studies are PM 10 (n = 7), SO 2 (n = 7), NO 2 (n = 6), O 3 (n = 6), CO (n = 5), PM 2.5 (n = 5), and PM 10-2.5 (n = 1). The distributions of the mean pollutant concentrations are available in Table 2.…”

“…Finally, we searched the reference lists of all studies included in this review and used the “cited by” feature of SCOPUS to screen for eligibility articles that cited included studies. This process was completed using Web of Science for one study that was not indexed in Scopus 18 …”

“…This process was completed using Web of Science for one study that was not indexed in Scopus. 18 The screening of titles and abstracts was conducted by one reviewer (T.C. A.).…”

The Situation of Agricultural Pesticide Use and Its Human Health Hazards in Iran, a Qualitative Study

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A Review of the Effect of Outdoor Polycyclic Aromatic Hydrocarbons on Bladder Cancer

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