Hospital Admissions Due to Short-term Exposure to Air Pollution: A scoping review

Abstract

Context: Annually thousands of people lose their lives due to air pollution. Today, air pollution in most countries, especially developing countries, is a public health problem and millions of dollars spent to treat patients who admitted to the emergency department due to exposure to air pollutants. Study on hospital admissions is a method for the impact survey of ambient air pollution on a human. Evidence Acquisition: In this study reviewed the effects of air pollutants (No2, SO2, PM2.5, PM10, CO, PAH and VOCs) on human health, with a focus on hospital admission after short-term exposure. In the articles literature that reviewed Short-term exposure to ambient air pollutants including No2, SO2, PM2.5, PM10 and CO led to hospital admission (except for PAH and VOCs). We systematically searched international datasets to identify relevant studies, including PubMed, Scopus, Cochrane library, CINAHL, ISI Web of Science, Science Direct from inception, PROSPERO and EMBASE using medical purposed subject headings (Mesh) terms. Result: The most common cause of hospital admission after short-term exposure to air pollution was cardiovascular and respiratory diseases. The health effects of air pollution on studied groups in dry and warm weather were higher than in wet and cold weather. In studies with more pollutants, the share of each pollutant in hospital admission was clearer. Conclusion: The costs of treatment were far higher than the cost of prevention. The effectiveness of preventive methods was more than therapeutic methods. The history of exposure to ambient air pollutants and their impact on hospital admission rate due to short-term exposure to air pollutants require separate studies in this field. More accurate identification of the toxicological mechanisms seemed to be necessary after the short-term exposure to deal with acute poisoning due to air pollution.