| Environmental epidemiological studies relating air pollution based on large, long-term, continuous databases of entire communities are relatively few. Associations between daily air pollution levels and the hospitalization rate for air pollution-related illnesses were assessed in the Reno-Sparks area of Nevada, for the period 1989-1994. Bivariate correlation (BC), weighted least-square (WLS) and time-series autoregressive integrated moving average (ARIMA) modeling were utilized and compared respectively in this study. Daily emergency room (ER) visits for asthma, hospital admissions for chronic obstructive pulmonary disease (COPD), for ischemic heart disease (IHD) and for Gastroenteritis (GE, as control variable) were included from all three hospitals in the region. A total of 1593 ER visits for asthma, 3452 COPD, 13108 IHD, and 7013 GE hospital admissions were analyzed. Daily air pollution levels were moderately elevated during the study period. Average particulate matter (PM-10), carbon monoxide (CO) and ozone (O... |
