Association Between Particulate Matter (PM₁₀) Exposure and Cardiorespiratory Hospital Admissions: A Time Series Analysis

Abstract

This study aimed to evaluate the association between particulate matter (PM₁₀) exposure and cardiorespiratory hospital admissions and develop a time series model for cardiorespiratory hospital admissions in Johor, Malaysia. Retrospective time series analysis was utilised to study cardiorespiratory hospital admissions for the study period 2015-2016. Over-dispersed Poisson generalized linear models with parametric smoothing functions were used to examine the association between cardiorespiratory admissions and PM₁₀ exposure. Male patients have a higher mean age at admission compared to female patients for cardiovascular admissions. Correlations were weak between PM₁₀ concentration and meteorological data. Time series analysis yielded insignificant results in establishing the association between PM₁₀ and both cardiorespiratory hospitalisations after adjusting for long-term trend, seasonal patterns and meteorological covariates. The findings from this study contribute to the heterogeneity of existing literature on this subject. More studies need to be conducted with the use of multipollutant models and adjustments for more confounding variables. The methodology used here is proposed as a way to explore reproducibility of air pollution effects on risk of cardiorespiratory hospitalisations of urban and suburban populations in Johor, Malaysia.