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Air Pollution Could Double Risk Of Hospitalization For Pneumonia In Elders
"We postulate that long-term exposure to air pollution may have increased individuals' susceptibility to pneumonia by interfering with innate immune defenses designed to protect the lung from pathogens," lead investigator Dr. Mark Loeb, of McMaster University in Ontario, said in a news release from the American Thoracic Society.
The researchers had set out to assess the effect of long-term exposure to ambient nitrogen dioxide, sulfur dioxide, and fine particulate matter with diameter equal to or smaller than 2.5 ĩm (PM2.5) on hospitalization for community-acquired pneumonia in older adults.
We enrolled 345 hospitalized patients aged 65 years or more for community-acquired pneumonia and 494 control participants, aged 65 years and more, randomly selected from the same community as cases from July 2003 to April 2005. Health data were collected by personal interview. Annual average levels of nitrogen dioxide, sulfur dioxide, and PM2.5 before the study period were estimated, the scientists reported in the Jan. 1 issue of the American Journal of Respiratory and Critical Care Medicine.
Breathing two air pollutants for more than 12 months was associated with a doubling in risk of hospitalization from pneumonia a leading cause of sickness and death among older adults.
"What we found was that individuals who developed community-acquired pneumonia were more likely to have long-term exposure to nitrogen dioxide [from vehicle exhaust] and they were twice more likely to be hospitalized," said principal investigator Dr. Mark Loeb, an infectious disease specialist at McMaster.
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