Short-term effects of ambient air pollution on emergency department visits for urolithiasis: A time-series study in Wuhan, China.

Background: Previous studies have explored the correlation between short-term exposure to air pollution and urinary system diseases, but lack of evidence on the correlation between air pollution and urolithiasis.
Methods: Daily data of emergency department visits (EDVs), concentrations of six air pollutants (SO ₂ , NO ₂ , PM _2.5 , PM ₁₀ , CO, and O ₃ ) and meteorological variables were collected in Wuhan, China, from 2016 to 2018. And a time-series study was conducted to investigate short-term effects of air pollutants on urolithiasis EDVs. In addition, stratified analyses by season, age and gender were also conducted.
Results: A total of 7,483 urolithiasis EDVs were included during the study period. A 10-μg/m ³ increase of SO ₂ , NO ₂ , PM _2.5 , CO, PM ₁₀ , and O ₃ corresponded to 15.02% (95% confidence interval [CI]: 1.69%, 30.11%), 1.96% (95% CI: 0.19%, 3.76%), 1.09% (95% CI:-0.24%, 2.43%), 0.14% (95% CI: 0.02%, 0.26%), 0.72% (95% CI: 0.02%, 1.43%), and 1.17% (95% CI: 0.40%, 1.94%) increases in daily urolithiasis EDVs. Significant positive correlations were observed between SO ₂ , NO ₂ , CO, and O ₃ and urolithiasis EDVs. The correlations were mainly among females (especially PM _2.5 and CO) and younger people (especially SO ₂ , NO ₂ , and PM ₁₀ ) but the effect of CO was more obvious in elders. Furthermore, the effects of SO ₂ and CO were stronger in warm seasons, while the effects of NO ₂ were stronger in cool seasons.
Conclusion: Our time-series study indicates that short-term exposure to air pollution (especially SO ₂ , NO ₂ , CO, and O ₃ ) was positively correlated with EDVs for urolithiasis in Wuhan, China, and the effects varied by season, age and gender.
Competing Interests: The authors declare that the research was conducted in the absence of any commercial or financial relationships that could be construed as a potential conflict of interest.
(Copyright © 2023 Xu, Liu, Wang and Jin.)