Abstract

Although it is a growing area of investigation in the Global Dust Belt, only a few population-level studies have evaluated the human health associations of windblown dust in North America. We investigated whether acute, short-term dust exposures (DE), in Lubbock, Texas (a medium-sized, dust-prone city in the southern Great Plains, USA) were associated with significant increases in hospitalizations on the day of the exposure and up to 7 days afterward. We used the distributed lag non-linear models in time series analysis to describe non-linear relationship between response outcomes and the delayed effects of exposure over time. We found that increased relative risks of hospitalizations for multiple conditions were associated with the two DE approaches that occurred between 2010 and 2014. Consistent with prior studies of dust health effects in other cities in North America, we identified increased hospitalization risks in Lubbock due to neurodegenerative, atherosclerosis, renal, respiratory, asthma, mental, stroke, neoplasms, ischemia, hematologic, musculoskeletal, and associated diseases (aggregation of all causes each associated with at least 5% of hospitalizations) at various dust exposure days. Associations were modified by age, gender, day of the week, and holiday effects. As climate change increases water stresses on dryland agriculture and long periods of drought, dust exposures are likely to increase for residents of dryland cities and with it the likelihood of adverse health effects on people with preexisting conditions. Additional investigations are needed for other dust-prone population centers worldwide to document the health effects of dust exposures and investigate their causes.

中文翻译：

---

美国德克萨斯州拉伯克市灰尘多发城市的灰尘暴露与住院治疗之间的关联

摘要

尽管全球沙尘带的研究领域不断扩大，但只有少数人口层面的研究评估了北美风尘与人类健康的关系。我们调查了德克萨斯州拉伯克（美国大平原南部的一个中型、多发灰尘的城市）的急性短期灰尘暴露 (DE) 是否与暴露当天住院人数的显着增加有关，以及最多 7 天后。我们在时间序列分析中使用分布式滞后非线性模型来描述响应结果与暴露随时间的延迟效应之间的非线性关系。我们发现，多种疾病住院相对风险的增加与 2010 年至 2014 年期间发生的两种 DE 方法有关。与之前对北美其他城市灰尘健康影响的研究一致，我们发现拉伯克因神经退行性病变而导致的住院风险增加、动脉粥样硬化、肾脏、呼吸系统、哮喘、精神、中风、肿瘤、缺血、血液、肌肉骨骼和相关疾病（所有原因的总和，每个原因与至少 5% 的住院治疗相关）在不同的粉尘暴露天数。关联因年龄、性别、星期几和假期影响而改变。随着气候变化增加旱地农业的用水压力和长期干旱，旱地城市居民的灰尘暴露可能会增加，从而可能对已有疾病的人产生不利的健康影响。需要对全球其他易发生灰尘的人口中心进行更多调查，以记录灰尘暴露对健康的影响并调查其原因。