Background

Alzheimer's disease (AD) and other forms of dementia are the seventh leading cause of death. Studies discern the inclusion of air pollution among modifiable risk factors for dementia, while limited studies are for China. This study aims to examine the short-term association between airborne particulate matter (PM) and the hospitalizations of AD, including the economic costs in China.

Methods

A total of 4975 cases of AD patients hospitalized from 2017 to 2019, were collected from nine city and 411 medical institutions in Sichuan Province, China. Data on air pollutants such as PM_2.5, PM₁₀, and NO₂ were obtained from 183 air quality monitoring stations in Sichuan Province. A time series-generalized additive model was used to estimate the association between short-term exposure to PM (lag1–lag7 and moving average lag01–lag07) and AD hospital admissions (HAs), stratified by gender, age, and season.

Results

Positive short-term exposure to airborne PM was found for the HAs of AD. The greatest effect on the number of AD inpatients was on single-day lag1 (PM_2.5:1.034 (95% confidence interval (CI) 1.011, 1.058)). The association was also significant in the two-pollutant model. In the study period, 16.48% of AD HAs were attributed to the effect of PM. The total economic costs of AD attributable to PM exposure were US$ 2.56 million, including US$ 2.25 million of direct medical costs and US$ 0.31 million of indirect economic costs.

Conclusions

This study suggests that short-term exposure to airborne PM may increase the risk of AD HAs in Sichuan Province and result in associated economic costs.