Time-series studies on air pollution and daily outpatient visits for allergic rhinitis in Beijing, China

International Science and Technology Cooperation 2007DFC20180;Key Projects in the National Science & Technology Pillar Program during the Eleventh Five-Year Plan Period of China 2007BAC03A11-07;Regulations for Chinese Academy of Sciences 2009Z2-22To investigate the effects of urban air quality change on health, we carried out a time-series analysis of daily general practitioner consultations for allergic rhinitis (AR) in Beijing, China. Non-parametric generalized additive model (GAM) was used to analyze the highly non-linear or non-monotonic exposure-response relationship between three air pollutants (namely PM10. SO2 and NO2) and daily outpatient visits for AR, after controlling for long term trends, the 'day of the week' effect and confounding meteorological factors. The objective of this study was to assess the possible effects of air pollutants on outpatient visits caused by AR in Beijing during the period 2009-2010. Our work indicates that strong associations exist between daily concentration of the three air pollutants and the daily number of outpatients for AR. (C) 2011 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved