Work

The effect of air pollution on hospitalizations with Parkinson’s disease among medicare beneficiaries nationwide

Year: 2024

Type: article

Abstract: We examined the effect of annual exposure to fine particulate matter (PM 2.5 ), nitrogen dioxide (NO 2 ), and ozone (O 3 ), on the rate of first hospitalization with a PD-related diagnosis (hospitalization with PD) among Medicare Fee-for-Service beneficiaries (2001-2016). Machine learning-derived annual air pollution concentrations were linked to residential ZIP codes. For each exposure, we fitted four models: 1) traditional outcome stratification, 2) marginal structural, 3) doubly robust, and 4) generalized propensity score matching Poisson regression models, adjusted for sociodemographic and meteorological confounders and long-term trends. Among 49,121,026 beneficiaries, incidence rate ratios of 1.08 (95% CI: 1.07, 1.10), 1.07 (95% CI: 1.05, 1.08), and 1.03 (95% CI: 1.02, 1.05) for an interquartile range increase in PM 2.5 (3.72 µg/m 3 ), NO 2 (13.84 ppb), and O 3 (10.09 ppb), respectively, were estimated from doubly robust models. Results were similar across modeling approaches. In this nationwide study, higher air pollution exposure increased the rate of hospitalizations with PD.

Source: npj Parkinson s Disease

DOI: 10.1038/s41531-024-00815-x