Health effects of air pollution in worldwide countries: an ecological study

Background and aims: Air pollution is one of the health problems worldwide. Previous epidemiological studies have investigated the impacts of air pollution on respiratory and cardiovascular diseases. The aim of this study was to determine the associations between air pollution levels and different health indicators among world countries. Methods: This ecological study was performed in ۲۰۱۳ by using dataset of World Health Organization (WHO). The main variable in our study was air pollution index. The data including Maternal Mortality Rate (MMR) (per ۱۰۰۰۰۰ live births), Life Expectancy at birth (LE), preterm birth rate (per ۱۰۰۰ live births) and Non-Communicable Diseases (NCD) death rate (per ۱۰۰۰۰۰ populations) from ۹۱ countries were extracted. Pearson correlation coefficient was used to assess the linear correlation between air pollution and investigated indexes using Stata ۱۱. Results: MMR (r=۰.۳۶, P=۰.۰۰۱) and NCD death rate (r=۰.۳۱, P=۰.۰۰۲) were positively associated with air pollution level. The rate of air pollution was also negatively associated with LE among world countries (r=-۰.۵۷, P=۰.۰۰۱). Our findings have not shown any significant liner association between air pollution and preterm birth rate (r=۰.۱۴, P=۰.۴۱). Conclusion: Our results are in agreement with other recent findings that there is an association between air pollution and health indexes, especially mortality rate. Accordingly, from a public health perspective, reducing pollutant emissions to outdoor air should be a high priority for all countries.

کلیدواژه ها:

Air pollution ، Health index ، Ecologic study