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Alternative air pollution measures for detecting short‐term health effects in epidemiological studies
Author(s) -
Chiogna Monica,
Bellini Pierantonio
Publication year - 2002
Publication title -
environmetrics
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
SCImago Journal Rank - 0.68
H-Index - 58
eISSN - 1099-095X
pISSN - 1180-4009
DOI - 10.1002/env.505
Subject(s) - environmental health , air pollution , epidemiology , air pollutants , exposure assessment , pollution , environmental epidemiology , health effect , population , medicine , pathology , ecology , chemistry , organic chemistry , biology
There are many aspects of model choice that are involved in epidemiological studies of the effects of air pollution on health. One of these aspects has to do with exposure assessment of the study population. In this article we propose a different exposure assessment paradigm based on three measures of exposure, named night exposure, severity and duration. The role of these variables is to better grasp personal exposure from ambient concentrations and to include in the models an idea about the pattern of exposure, i.e. short/long exposures to medium/high levels of pollutants. Use of this new setting for the analysis of the relationship between air pollution and hospital admissions for respiratory disorders in the Italian city of Verona showed the potential of the new setting to deepen understanding of the nature of the association between air pollution and health. Copyright © 2002 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.