Effect of Air Pollutants and Meteorological Factors on Daily Outpatient Visits of Allergic Rhinitis in Hohhot, China

Abstract

Objective There is limited evidence that atmospheric pollutants are associated with the number of allergic rhinitis (AR) visits. This study aimed to investigate the relationship between atmospheric pollutants and meteorological factors and the number of daily visits for AR in Hohhot City, providing a theoretical basis for further research on the effects of atmospheric pollutants on AR. Methods Microsoft Excel 2016 was used to collect and organize the AR outpatient consultation data, air pollution and meteorological data in Hohhot City during 2018–2020, and the data were descriptively analyzed and Spearman correlation test was performed using SPSS22.0; A generalized additive model was built in R4.2.3 to analyze the effect of air pollution on the number of AR visits and its lagged and cumulative effects, while the robustness of the model was tested using a two-pollutant analysis. Finally, we analyzed the effects of the interaction of temperature, relative humidity and pollutants on the number of AR visits. Results The daily average concentrations of PM 2.5 , PM 10 , SO 2 , NO 2 , CO, and O 3 in Hohhot during 2018–2020 were 38.1 μg/m 3 , 83.3 μg/m 3 , 36.1 μg/m 3 , 15.1 μg/m 3 , 14.2 mg/m 3 , and 99.95 μg/m 3 , respectively, with the concentrations of PM 2.5 and PM 10 exceeding the secondary limit of the national standard. The results of the generalized additive model analysis showed that the RR and 95% CI of the effect of each 10 μg/m 3 increase in pollutant concentration (1 mg/m 3 increase in CO) on the number of AR outpatient clinics were 1.008 (1.001–1.016), 1.002 (1–1.005), 1.072 (1.033–1.113), 1.020 (1007–1.034), 1.033 (1.014–1.052), 0.987 (0.9804–0.9936). Conclusion Short-term exposure to PM 2.5 , PM 10 , SO 2 , NO 2 , and CO was significantly associated with an increase in AR clinic visits, and short-term exposure to O 3 was significantly associated with a decrease in allergic rhinitis clinic visits.

Causal association between air pollution and allergic rhinitis, asthma: a Mendelian randomization study

“…Conversely, air pollutants such as O3, PM2.5, PM10, SO2, and NO2 were found to have a substantial impact on AR, according to a recent study in China that involved 12,868 instances of AR outpatients ( 58 ). A other study from 2023 found that there was a correlation between short-term exposure to PM2.5, PM10, SO2, NO2, and CO with an increase in AR clinic visits ( 59 ). This contentious matter can be explained by two primary factors.…”