Abstract
Purpose :
The World Health Organization has declared climate change to be “the single biggest health threat facing humanity” yet there are limited studies on the impact of climate change-related air pollution on adverse ocular outcomes. This study explored associations between ocular surface irritation and allergy ophthalmology daily visits with daily ambient particulate matter (PM) levels in the Denver Metropolitan Area.
Methods :
Ophthalmology daily visit counts were captured from an academic health center (October 1st, 2015 through January 27th, 2023) Daily ambient average concentration of PM 10 micrometers or less in diameter (PM10) and 2.5 micrometers or less in diameter (PM2.5) were merged with daily ophthalmology visits. Data were analyzed with distributed lag non-linear models while accounting for the cumulative lagged effects of PM10 and PM2.5 for all visits. Modification due to temperature was assessed in stratified models.
Results :
There were a total of 144,313 ocular surface irritation and allergy visits to ophthalmology during the study period, with an average of 54 visits per day (range: 0 to 203). Median daily ambient PM10 and PM2.5 concentrations were 24.69 (IQR 16.00, 35.96) and 6.44 (IQR 4.85, 8.88), respectively. Daily visit counts increased with increasing daily ambient PM10 and PM2.5 concentrations. Five-day cumulative ambient PM10, concentrations at 80, 90, 100, and 110 showed increases in rate ratio at each level from 1.77 (95%CI: 1.71, 1.84) at concentration of 80 to 2.20 (95%CI: 2.09, 2.30) for concentration of 110. Similarly, the visit rate ratio increased as daily PM2.5 concentration increased, but this gradient effect was not significantly higher as the concentration increased. The effect of PM10 was higher on days when the temperature was below average. Temperature did not affect the association between PM2.5 and number of visits.
Conclusions :
These findings suggest that ambient PM increases the rate of ophthalmology visits for ocular surface irritation and allergy. Most importantly, this association increases in magnitude with higher ambient PM concentrations. Additional studies are needed to fully understand the impact of climate change-related stressors such as air pollution, temperature, and humidity on ocular health.
This abstract was presented at the 2024 ARVO Annual Meeting, held in Seattle, WA, May 5-9, 2024.