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. 2023 Nov 21;11(12):949.
doi: 10.3390/toxics11120949.

Short-Term Ambient Air Pollution and Urticaria in Guangzhou, China: Estimating the Association and Population Attributable Fraction

Huanli Wang  1   2 , Morgan Matusik  3 , Robert Wunderlich  4 , Sarah E Hanson  5 , Kelly Babich  6 , Lilianne Samad  7 , Aaron M Qian  8 , Stephen Edward McMillin  9 , Xingdong Ye  1   2 , Sanquan Zhang  1   2 , Yumei Liu  1   2 , Xiaoyin Chen  1   2 , Zhenjie Li  1   2 , Hualiang Lin  10 , Huilan Zhu  1   2 , Xiaojie Wang  10
Affiliations

Short-Term Ambient Air Pollution and Urticaria in Guangzhou, China: Estimating the Association and Population Attributable Fraction

Huanli Wang et al. Toxics. .

Abstract

Limited evidence is available regarding the association between acute exposure to ambient air pollutants and the risk of urticaria, even though the skin is an organ with direct contact with the external environment. This study utilized generalized additive models to investigate the association between particulate matter with an aerodynamic diameter smaller than 10 μm (PM10) and 2.5 μm (PM2.5), nitrogen dioxide (NO2) and sulfur dioxide (SO2), and daily outpatient visits for urticaria in Guangzhou, China from 2013 to 2017. We also estimated the attributable fraction of urticaria outpatient visits due to air pollution. A total of 216,648 outpatient visits due to urticaria occurred during the study period. All air pollutants were significantly associated with an increased excess risk of urticaria. Each 10 μg/m3 increase in PM2.5, PM10, NO2, and SO2 was associated with an increase of 1.23% (95% CI: 0.42%, 2.06%), 0.88% (95% CI: 0.28%, 1.49%), 3.09% (95% CI: 2.16%, 4.03%), and 2.82% (95% CI: 0.93%, 4.74%) in hospital visits for urticaria at lag05, respectively. It was estimated that 3.77% (95% CI: 1.26%, 6.38%), 1.91% (95% CI: 0.60%, 3.26%), 6.36% (95% CI: 4.38%, 8.41%), and 0.08% (95% CI: 0.03%, 0.14%) of urticaria outpatient visits were attributable to PM2.5, PM10, NO2, and SO2 using the World Health Organization's air quality guideline as the reference. Relatively stronger associations were observed during the cold season. This study indicates that short-term air pollution may play a significant role in outpatient visits for urticaria, and that such relationships could be modified by season.

Keywords: China; air pollution; population attributable fraction; short-term; urticaria.

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Conflict of interest statement

The authors declare no conflict of interest.

Figures

Figure 1
Figure 1
Excess risk (and 95% confidence interval) of urticaria outpatient visits for each 10 μg/m3 increment in PM2.5, PM10, SO2, and NO2 with different lag days.
Figure 2
Figure 2
Excess risk (and 95% confidence interval) of urticaria outpatient visits for each 10 μg/m3 increment in PM2.5, PM10, SO2, and NO2 with different lag days stratified by seasons.
See this image and copyright information in PMC

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