Short-term effects of main air pollutants exposure on LOS and costs of CVD hospital admissions from 30,959 cases among suburban farmers in Pingliang, Northwest China

Background Although cardiovascular disease (CVD) has been the major contributor to global mortality and disability especially in undeveloped and developing countries/areas with severer air pollutions, studies are quite limited and evidence is insufficient of short-term main air pollutants exposure on health burden of CVD hospital admissions in those regions particularly through direct costs. Method Based on an analysis of 30,959 CVD hospital admissions among suburban farmers from 2018 to 2019 through multiple linear regression (MLR), our study evaluated the impact of main air pollutants (PM 2.5 , PM 10 , SO 2 , CO, NO 2 and O 3 ) exposure on number of cases, length of stay (LOS) and costs of CVD hospital admissions in Pingliang, China. Results Concentration of SO 2 and O 3 rising from a low level was found to lower the costs, LOS and daily cases of CVD hospital admissions and PM 2.5 , PM 10 , CO and NO 2 were found to aggravate the burden. Besides, the NO 2 could put more economic stress on those CVD patients in Pingliang (China) which implies that some improvements could be done on public medical insurance policy and benefit local suburban farmers by strengthening the supports on specific drugs and therapies. Conclusions More efforts should be made to lower the concentration of air pollution by coordinated control managements even in a low-level scenario. Concentration levels and interactions between main air pollutants may play an important role in air pollution-induced CVD health burden. Future research is needed to explore more evidence in different areas, especially with low-level SO 2 effects.