The Joint Associations of Ambient Air Pollutants and Weather Factors with Mortality: Evidence from a National Time-Stratified Case-Crossover Study in China

Abstract

Background: People in daily life are usually exposed to multiple environmental factors, but few studies have evaluated the joint health impacts of both ambient air pollutants and weather factors.

Methods: We collected individual information of 6,685,146 deaths across China, and estimated the joint associations of air pollutants (PM2.5, O3, NO2, SO2, and CO) and weather factors (temperature and relative humidity) with mortality, using a time-stratified case-crossover study.

Results: The PAF of overall mortality attributed to air pollutants and weather factors was 16.65%, in which the joint PAFs attributable to air pollutants and weather factors were 5.31% and 11.34%, respectively. Stratified analyses showed greater PAFs in females and in the elderly. The PAFs of mortality from cardiovascular diseases, respiratory diseases, and pneumonia were 22.72%, 24.82%, and 33.03%, respectively.

Conclusion: This study provides the joint associations of short-term exposures to both air pollutants and weather factors with mortality risk in China.

Note:
Funding declaration: This work was supported by the National Key Research and Development Program of China (2018YFA0606200), National Natural Science Foundation of China (81874276, 42075173, 42175181), Natural Science Foundation of Guangdong, China (2019A1515011264), and the Science and Technology Program of Guangzhou (201607010004).

Conflict of Interests: We declare no competing interests

Keywords: Environmental exposures, Air Pollution, temperature, Joint association, Mortality burden