Short-Term Associations of Fine Particulate Matter and Synoptic Weather Types with Cardiovascular Mortality: An Ecological Time-Series Study in Shanghai, China

Abstract

Background: Exposures to both ambient fine particulate matter (PM2.5) and extreme weather conditions have been associated with cardiovascular disease (CVD) deaths in numerous epidemiologic studies. However, evidence on the associations with CVD deaths for interaction effects between PM2.5 and weather conditions is still limited. This study aimed to investigate associations of exposures to PM2.5 and weather conditions with cardiovascular mortality, and further to investigate the synergistic or antagonistic effects of ambient air pollutants and synoptic weather types (SWTs). Methods: Information on daily CVD deaths, air pollution, and meteorological conditions between 1 January 2012 and 31 December 2014 was obtained in Shanghai, China. Generalized additive models were used to assess the associations of daily PM2.5 concentrations and meteorological factors with CVD deaths. A 15-day lag analysis was conducted using a polynomial distributed lag model to access the lag patterns for associations with PM2.5. Results: During the study period, the total number of CVD deaths in Shanghai was 59,486, with a daily mean of 54.3 deaths. The average daily PM2.5 concentration was 55.0 µg/m3. Each 10 µg/m3 increase in PM2.5 concentration was associated with a 1.26% (95% confidence interval (CI): 0.40%, 2.12%) increase in CVD mortality. No SWT was statistically significantly associated with CVD deaths. For the interaction between PM2.5 and SWT, statistically significant interactions were found between PM2.5 and cold weather, with risk for PM2.5 in cold dry SWT decreasing by 1.47% (95% CI: 0.54%, 2.39%), and in cold humid SWT the risk decreased by 1.45% (95% CI: 0.52%, 2.36%). In the lag effect analysis, statistically significant positive associations were found for PM2.5 in the 1–3 lag days, while no statistically significant effects were found for other lag day periods. Conclusions: Exposure to PM2.5 was associated with short-term increased risk of cardiovascular deaths with some lag effects, while the cold weather may have an antagonistic effect with PM2.5. However, the ecological study design limited the possibility to identify a causal relationship, so prospective studies with individual level data are warranted.

Sex differences in Associations of Fine Particulate Matter with Non-accidental Deaths: An Ecological Time-Series Study

“…Overall, the average daily concentration of PM 2.5 in Shanghai was 55.0 µg/m 3 , with a similar seasonal trend as the daily non-accidental deaths (i.e. high values in cold seasons and low values in warm seasons) [19].…”

“…Some 53.1% of these deaths were men and the average ages at death were 74.9 and 79.3 years for men and women, respectively (Table 1). The detailed results of PM 2.5 concentrations and weather conditions during the study period were published previously [13,19]. Overall, the average daily concentration of PM 2.5 in Shanghai was 55.0 µg/m 3 , with a similar seasonal trend as the daily non-accidental deaths (i.e.…”

“…The data collection of the study has been described in detailed elsewhere [13,18,19]. In brief, hourly PM 2.5 concentrations in 2012 were obtained from the United States Consulate General in Shanghai, and daily average PM 2.5 concentrations calculated from hourly data in 2013 and 2014 were obtained from the Shanghai Meteorological Bureau.…”

Exceedances and trends of particulate matter (PM2.5) in five Indian megacities

“…This USEC data has been used for the study of PM 2.5 levels in the urban environment for different purposes viz. ; to study the trend and characteristics of PM 2.5 ( Chen et al, 2020 ; Fontes et al, 2017 ; Sreekanth et al, 2018 ; Liang et al, 2016 ; Batterman et al, 2016 ; San Martini et al, 2015 ), to compare with other data and model evaluation ( Jiang et al, 2015 ; Li, 2020 ; Matthias et al, 2017 ; Mukherjee and Toohey, 2016 ; Shimadera et al, 2016 ; Uno et al, 2014 ; Wang et al, 2018 ), and to estimate the health impacts ( Han et al, 2020 ; Lowsen and Conway, 2016 ; Luong et al, 2020 ; Nhung et al, 2020 ; Tian et al, 2020 ; Wang et al, 2020 ; You et al, 2016 ; Zhang et al, 2020 ). While most of the studies are carried out in China, few studies have been carried out for other countries including Vietnam ( Hien et al, 2019 ; Luong et al, 2020 ), Japan ( Shimadera et al, 2016 ) Indonesia ( Kusuma et al, 2019 ), Mongolia ( Hill et al, 2017 ), Bangladesh ( Auvee and Bashar, 2019 ), and Singapore ( Liu and Salvo, 2018 ).…”

Sex differences in associations of fine particulate matter with non-accidental deaths: an ecological time-series study

“…The data collection of the study has been described in detail elsewhere (Fang et al 2017;Leepe et al 2019;Tian et al 2020). In brief, hourly PM 2.5 concentrations in 2012 were obtained from the United States Consulate General in Shanghai, and daily average PM 2.5 concentrations calculated from hourly data in 2013 and 2014 were obtained from the Shanghai Meteorological Bureau.…”