Linking environmental and health care databases: Assessing the health effects of environmental pollutants |
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| Institution: | 1. Centre for Water Research, Department of Civil and Environmental Engineering, National University of Singapore, 1 Engineering Dr. 2, Singapore 117576, Singapore;2. Laboratoire Réactions et Génie des Procédés, UMR CNRS 7274, Université de Lorraine, 1 rue Grandville BP 20451, 54001 Nancy cedex, France;3. School of Civil Engineering and Architecture, Northeast Electric Power University, Jilin 132012, China;1. GD Animal Health, Deventer, The Netherlands;2. Kansas State Polytechnic, Kansas State University, Salina, KS, United States;3. Air Data Solutions, Natchitoches, LA, United States;4. Department of Biological and Agricultural Engineering, Kansas State University, Manhattan, KS, United States |
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| Abstract: | The assessment of pollutant effects on health status requires the mergence and analysis of two different databases: pollution measurements and health care information. This paper compares two subsets of these data: Ohio Environmental Protection Agency data on ambient air pollutants and Ohio Medicare data on respiratory diseases. Small area analysis was performed to assess statewide variations in hospital admission rates for respiratory diseases. The ambient air pollutant levels for each small area were compared to the variations in respiratory disease rates. Five groups of diseases correlated with pollutant levels. In addition, pollutant levels were significantly associated with medical complications. This study demonstrates the feasibility and benefit of linking environmental and health care databases and suggests the need for a more comprehensive, automated analysis of more pollutants and diseases. |
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