title: Air pollution and daily hospital admissions for cardiovascular diseases in Windsor, Ontario.
abstract: OBJECTIVE
  To examine the role that ambient air pollution plays in exacerbating cardiovascular disease hospitalization in Windsor, Ontario.
  
  
  METHODS
  The number of daily cardiac hospital admissions was obtained from all Windsor hospitals from April 1, 1995 to December 31, 2000 and linked to concentrations of ambient air pollutants and weather variables. The logarithm of daily counts of hospitalization was regressed on the levels of pollutants, after adjusting for seasonal, weekly cycles, and weather variables using time series analysis with natural splines as smoothing functions.
  
  
  RESULTS
  Of all the pollutants considered, sulphur dioxide (SO2) had the strongest effect on cardiac hospitalization among the > or = 65 age group. The percentage increase in daily admission was 2.6% for current day sulphur dioxide level (95% CI: 0.5-6.4), 4.0% for 2-day mean level (95% CI: 0.1-6.9), and 5.6% (95% CI: 1.5-9.9) for 3-day mean level for an increase in interquartile range of 19.3 ppb. When particulate PM10 was included in the model, the contributing effect of sulphur dioxide remained significant for the > or = 65 age group for all three levels.
  
  
  CONCLUSIONS
  Short-term effects of sulphur dioxide are associated significantly to daily cardiac hospital admissions for people > or = 65 years of age living in Windsor. Since Windsor is a border city, additional monitoring and assessment is recommended to determine if air quality and resultant health effects have deteriorated since traffic congestion at the border has increased following the events of September 11, 2001.
authors.affiliation: 1 Department of Mathematics & Statistics, University of Windsor, Windsor, ON N9B 3P4. kfung@uwindsor.ca
authors.forename: Karen Y
authors.initials: KY
authors.lastname: Fung
authors.forename: Isaac
authors.initials: I
authors.lastname: Luginaah
authors.forename: Kevin M
authors.initials: KM
authors.lastname: Gorey
authors.forename: Greg
authors.initials: G
authors.lastname: Webster
mesh_terms: D000293:Adolescent; D000328:Adult; D000368:Aged; D000397:Air Pollution / Q000009:adverse effects* / Q000032:analysis; D002318:Cardiovascular Diseases / Q000453:epidemiology*; D002648:Child; D002675:Child, Preschool; D006760:Hospitalization / Q000706:statistics & numerical data*; D006801:Humans; D007223:Infant; D007231:Infant, Newborn; D008875:Middle Aged; D009864:Ontario / Q000453:epidemiology; D015985:Precipitating Factors; D012306:Risk; D013458:Sulfur Dioxide / Q000009:adverse effects; D014887:Weather
chemical_list: D013458:Sulfur Dioxide