Background. The evidence of the harm of air pollutants to respiratory health in inland cities in southern China is relatively limited. Therefore, it is necessary to explore the relationship between air pollutants and the number of hospitalized patients with chronic obstructive pulmonary disease (COPD) in this area.Method. The number of inpatients with COPD, air quality data and meteorological data in the First Affiliated Hospital of Gannan Medical University in Ganzhou City from 2016 to 2020 were collected. Generalized additive models were used to analyze the lagged effects of air pollutants and their health effects on the number of hospitalizations for COPD.Results. Among a variety of pollutants, the air pollutants PM2.5, PM10, NO2 and O3 in Ganzhou City have a significant impact on the number of hospitalized patients with COPD. Using PM2.5 as an example, the single day lag effect and cumulative lag effect reached their maximum at lag 6 day and lag 12 day, respectively, at which time the number of hospitalizations due to COPD increased by 2.82% and 6.60%, respectively. After adjusting for other pollutants, it was found that the impact of PM2.5 on the number of hospitalizations of COPD patients did not change much. Compared with the cold season, the changes of PM2.5, PM10 and O3 in warm season have a greater impact on the number of inpatients with COPD.Conclusions. The increased concentrations of PM2.5, PM10, NO2 and O3 in Ganzhou may increase the risk of COPD patients, which is one of the reasons for the increase in the number of COPD hospitalizations.
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