Back to Search
Start Over
Worldwide associations between air quality and health end-points: are they meaningful?
- Source :
- International Journal of Occupational Medicine and Environmental Health, Vol 27, Iss 5, Pp 716-721 (2014)
- Publication Year :
- 2014
-
Abstract
- Objectives: The World Health Organization (WHO) provides data on national indices of health, environment and economy. When we were asked, why air pollution is negatively correlated with cancer mortality, our first response (presumably the mortality data are not age-adjusted) was not sufficient to explain the paradox. Material and Methods: A table including all-cause, cancer and childhood mortality, life expectancy, gross national product per person, smoking prevalence, physician density and particulate matter (PM10) per country (N = 193) was developed. For explorative purposes weighted cross-sectional multiple linear regressions models were built. Results: Air pollution is positively correlated with infant and overall mortality and negatively with life expectancy. This might not only depict a true causal effect of PM10 because air quality is also an indicator of a country’s prosperity and general state of environment. Cancer mortality is negatively correlated with PM10. However, this association turns positive when economic or health system indicators are controlled. Conclusions: The World Health Organization’s world-wide data sets demonstrate the large disparity of our world. A careful and professional approach is needed as interpretation is difficult, especially for lay persons. Therefore, with publicly available data WHO should also provide interpretation and guidance.
- Subjects :
- Adult
Male
Adolescent
Air pollution
environmental health
lcsh:Medicine
medicine.disease_cause
Global Health
World Health Organization
World health
WHO
Life Expectancy
Environmental health
Air Pollution
Neoplasms
Physicians
Infant Mortality
medicine
Prevalence
Humans
Child
Air quality index
Cancer
Aged
Cancer mortality
Aged, 80 and over
ecological study
lcsh:R
Smoking
Public Health, Environmental and Occupational Health
Infant, Newborn
Ecological study
Infant
General Medicine
Environmental Exposure
Middle Aged
medicine.disease
air quality
teaching
Geography
Mortality data
Child, Preschool
Child Mortality
Female
Particulate Matter
Environmental Monitoring
Subjects
Details
- ISSN :
- 1896494X
- Volume :
- 27
- Issue :
- 5
- Database :
- OpenAIRE
- Journal :
- International journal of occupational medicine and environmental health
- Accession number :
- edsair.doi.dedup.....1d014dadaea0adbde9accfc8bac9f9f1