Skip to main page content
U.S. flag

An official website of the United States government

Dot gov

The .gov means it’s official.
Federal government websites often end in .gov or .mil. Before sharing sensitive information, make sure you’re on a federal government site.

Https

The site is secure.
The https:// ensures that you are connecting to the official website and that any information you provide is encrypted and transmitted securely.

Access keys NCBI Homepage MyNCBI Homepage Main Content Main Navigation
. 2022 Apr 1;10(4):173.
doi: 10.3390/toxics10040173.

Exposure to Air Pollutants Increases the Risk of Chronic Rhinosinusitis in Taiwan Residents

Shih-Wei Chen  1   2 , Han-Jie Lin  2 , Stella Chin-Shaw Tsai  2   3 , Cheng-Li Lin  4 , Chung Y Hsu  5 , Tsai-Ling Hsieh  2   6 , Chuan-Mu Chen  1   3   7 , Kuang-Hsi Chang  1   6   8   9
Affiliations

Exposure to Air Pollutants Increases the Risk of Chronic Rhinosinusitis in Taiwan Residents

Shih-Wei Chen et al. Toxics. .

Abstract

Air pollution triggers a tissue-specific inflammatory response. However, studies on the association between exposure to air pollutants and chronic rhinosinusitis (CRS) risk remain limited. Thus, we conducted this nationwide study to define the association between air pollution and CRS. We used the Longitudinal Health Insurance Database (LHID) and Taiwan Air Quality-Monitoring Database (TAQMD) to conduct a population-based cohort study. Study participants were recruited from the LHID, a data subset of the National Health Insurance Research Database that randomly sampled one million individuals. TAQMD has been an air pollutant database since 1998. In univariate and multivariate Cox proportional hazards regression models, adjusted hazard ratios (aHRs) and 95% CIs of CRS in five air pollutants were accounted. We adjusted for age, sex, urbanization level, insurance fee, comorbidities, and pollutant levels in the multivariate model. The total number of participants enrolled in this study was 160,504. The average age was 40.46 ± 14.62 years; males constituted 43.8% of the total participants. The percentages of alcoholism, tobacco dependence, and COPD were 1.5%, 2.8%, and 28.3%, respectively. After adjustment for age, sex, urbanization level, insurance fee, and comorbidities, the highest levels of air pollutants, including PM2.5 (aHR = 1.14, 95% CI = 1.06-1.22), NO2 (aHR = 1.07, 95% CI = 1.00-1.15), and PM10 (aHR = 1.13, 95% CI = 1.05-1.21) had a significantly greater CRS risk; we selected the lower concentration as the reference but did not correlate with CO. We found a significantly increased risk of CRS in residents with air pollutant exposure.

Keywords: Taiwan air quality-monitoring database; air pollution; chronic rhinosinusitis; longitudinal health insurance database.

PubMed Disclaimer

Conflict of interest statement

The authors declare no conflict of interest.

References

    1. Ko Y.C. Air pollution and its health effects on residents in Taiwanese communities. Kaohsiung J. Med. Sci. 1996;12:657–669. - PubMed
    1. Wang S.-M., Hu J.-L., Hsieh C.-H. An Environmental Kuznets Curve Study of the Relationship between Mobile Source Pollution and Air Quality in Taiwan. Agric. Resour. Econ. 2010;7:55–72.
    1. Wu S.-C. Department of Public Finance. Feng Chia University; Taichung City, Taiwan: 2017. Influence of Air Pollution Sources on Fine Particles; pp. 1–80.
    1. Lelieveld J., Evans J.S., Fnais M., Giannadaki D., Pozzer A. The contribution of outdoor air pollution sources to premature mortality on a global scale. Nature. 2015;525:367–371. doi: 10.1038/nature15371. - DOI - PubMed
    1. Atkinson R.W., Carey I.M., Kent A.J., van Staa T.P., Anderson H.R., Cook D.G. Long-term exposure to outdoor air pollution and incidence of cardiovascular diseases. Epidemiology. 2013;24:44–53. doi: 10.1097/EDE.0b013e318276ccb8. - DOI - PubMed

LinkOut - more resources