Linking environmental and health care databases: assessing the health effects of environmental pollutants.
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.
Foundation for Social and Scientific Inquiry, Columbus, OH 43230.
J H
JH
Brooks
K K
KK
Renz
S
S
Kattoua
S E
SE
White
S L
SL
Richardson
J
J
Delgigante
D000393:Air Pollutants / Q000009:adverse effects* / Q000032:analysis; D003195:Computer Communication Networks; D016208:Databases, Factual; D003953:Diagnosis-Related Groups / Q000706:statistics & numerical data; D006801:Humans; D006278:Medicare; D009820:Ohio / Q000453:epidemiology; D010351:Patient Discharge / Q000706:statistics & numerical data; D011366:Professional Review Organizations; D012044:Regression Analysis; D012140:Respiratory Tract Diseases / Q000209:etiology*; D013458:Sulfur Dioxide / Q000009:adverse effects / Q000032:analysis; D014481:United States; D014484:United States Environmental Protection Agency
D000393:Air Pollutants; D013458:Sulfur Dioxide