Exposure to air pollution ups risk of hospitalization for depression

Short-term exposure to ambient air pollution may increase the likelihood of daily hospital admission for depression, suggesting important implications for improving mental wellness among the public, reports a China study.

The authors used data from the Chinese national medical insurance databases for urban populations to carry out a two-stage time-series analysis and examine the correlation between short-term exposure to major ambient air pollutants—fine particles (PM_2.5), inhalable particles (PM₁₀), nitrogen dioxide (NO₂), sulfur dioxide (SO₂), ozone (O₃), and carbon monoxide (CO)—and daily hospital admission risk for depression in 75 Chinese cities during the period 2013–2017.

A total of 111,620 hospital admissions for depression were identified. The single-pollutant models demonstrated significant effect estimates of all included air pollutants, except for O₃, at several lags within 7 days.

For instance, 10-μg/m³ increases in PM_2.5, PM₁₀, and NO₂ at lag01 were associated with increases of 0.52 percent (95 percent confidence interval [CI], 0.03–1.01), 0.41 percent (95 percent CI, 0.05–0.78), and 1.78 percent (95 percent CI, 0.73–2.83), respectively, in daily hospital admissions for depression.

In subgroup, sensitivity, and two-pollutant model analyses, the robustness of the effect estimates for NO₂ was also observed.

These findings echoed an earlier study, which provided strong evidence of increased hospital admission in association with short-term exposure to ambient air pollution in China. [Environ Pollut 2018;242:1042-1049]