Medicaid patient asthma-related acute care visits and their associations with ozone and particulates in Washington, DC, from 1994-2005.
The primary objective of this ecologic and contextual study is to determine statistically significant short-term associations between air quality (daily ozone and particulate concentrations) and Medicaid patient general acute care daily visits for asthma exacerbations over 11 years for Washington, DC residents, and to identify regions and populations that may experience increased asthma exacerbations related to air quality. After removing long-term trends and day-of-week effects in the Medicaid data, Poisson regression was applied to daily time series data. Significant associations were found between asthma-related general acute care visits and ozone concentrations. Significant associations with both ozone and PM2.5 concentrations were observed for 5- to 12-year-olds. While poor air quality was closely associated with asthma exacerbations observed in acute care visits in areas where Medicaid enrollment was high, the strongest associations between asthma-related visits and air quality were not always for the areas with the highest Medicaid enrollment.
Johns Hopkins University Applied Physics Laboratory, Laurel, Maryland, USA. steven.babin@jhuapl.edu
Steven
S
Babin
Howard
H
Burkom
Rekha
R
Holtry
Nathaniel
N
Tabernero
John
J
Davies-Cole
Lynette
L
Stokes
Kerda
K
Dehaan
Deitra
D
Lee
D000208:Acute Disease; D000293:Adolescent; D000328:Adult; D000368:Aged; D000393:Air Pollutants / Q000009:adverse effects*; D001249:Asthma / Q000453:epidemiology / Q000209:etiology*; D002648:Child; D002675:Child, Preschool; D004219:District of Columbia / Q000453:epidemiology; D004781:Environmental Exposure / Q000009:adverse effects*; D006801:Humans; D007223:Infant; D008484:Medicaid / Q000706:statistics & numerical data; D008875:Middle Aged; D010126:Ozone / Q000009:adverse effects*; D052638:Particulate Matter / Q000009:adverse effects; D016012:Poisson Distribution; D014481:United States
D000393:Air Pollutants; D052638:Particulate Matter; D010126:Ozone