Air Pollution Linked to Worse Outcomes for COVID-19 Patients

MONDAY, June 26, 2023 (HealthDay News) -- For patients with COVID-19, exposure to air pollution is associated with increased duration of hospitalization and with increased risk of adverse outcomes, according to two studies published online June 21 in the European Respiratory Journal.

Stijn Vos, from Hasselt University in Belgium, and colleagues recruited 328 hospitalized COVID-19 patients from two hospitals and modeled daily exposure levels for particulate matter (PM_2.5 and PM₁₀), nitrogen dioxide (NO₂), and black carbon using a high-resolution spatiotemporal model. The researchers found that an interquartile range increase in exposure in the week before admission was associated with increased duration of hospitalization (PM_2.5: +4.22 days; NO₂: +4.33 days). Similar effects on hospitalization duration were seen for long-term NO₂ and black carbon exposure.

Jiawei Zhang, from the University of Copenhagen in Denmark, and colleagues followed 3,721,810 Danish residents 30 years and older in the National COVID-19 Surveillance System. The associations of air pollutants with COVID-19 outcomes were estimated. The researchers found that during 14 months, 138,742 individuals were infected, 11,270 were hospitalized, and 2,557 died from COVID-19. PM_2.5 (per 0.5 µg/m^-3) and NO₂ (per 3.6 µg/m^-3) were associated with COVID-19 incidence (hazard ratios, 1.10 and 1.18, respectively), hospitalizations (hazard ratios, 1.09 and 1.19, respectively), and death (hazard ratios, 1.23 and 1.18, respectively). The associations were strongest in the lowest socioeconomic groups and for those with chronic respiratory, cardiometabolic, and neurodegenerative disease.

"This article reinforces the evidence that community intervention on air pollution abatement would be a very effective way to protect our population from the impact of COVID-19, with the co-benefit of the protection against other respiratory infections as well," write the authors of an accompanying editorial.

Several authors from the second study reported ties to the pharmaceutical industry.

Abstract/Full Text - Vos

Abstract/Full Text - Zhang

Editorial