Air pollution and hospital admission in patients with chronic obstructive pulmonary disease in Tehran, Iran

Objective: There are many communities at risk by a series of air pollution episodes. Tehran is one of the most polluted cities in the world. The presence of one or more air pollutants with a certain concentration in a particular period of time can cause several adverse effects on human and animals’ well-being that can cause much morbidity. There are several pollutants in the air but some of them can cause severe adverse effects on the lungs and air ways.Methods: In this retrospective cross-sectional study 1958 patients with exacerbation of chronic obstructive pulmonary disease (COPD) who were admitted in the emergency department (ED) of Rasol Akram hospital between March 2004 and March 2006 entered the study. Data such as number of admissions, air pollution particles (CO, SO2, O3, NO2, PM10) according to available documents were analyzed.Results: From 1958 patients who enrolled in this study, 887 (53.5%) were male and 771 (46.5%) were female. According to statistical analysis, we could observe a significant correlation between the concentration of Co, PM10, So2 with ED admission rate of COPD exacerbation (P: 0.031, 0.008, and 0.001 respectively). The effect of PM10, So2 and Co was more significant respectively in logistic regression on ED admission.Conclusion: There was significant correction between concentrations of air pollutants with number of ED admission for COPD exacerbation.