Investigation into Atmospheric Pollution Impacts on Hospital Admissions in Attica Using Regression Models

Research in the field of air pollution epidemiology is crucial for identifying and enhancing quality of life by taking measures to manage adequately related medical emergencies. The aim of this paper is to investigate how the occurrence of certain respiratory and cardiovascular diseases in the urban population of the Attica region is affected by the existence of air pollution. The study takes into consideration the daily hospital admissions from two hospitals in central and western Attica as well as the air quality status from the neighboring monitoring stations. The Generalized Linear Models with Poisson Distribution were applied because of the distribution followed by the medical data. Preliminary results from the regression analysis revealed the relationship between pollutants’ concentrations and the associated health effects derived from public hospitals in Attica. The effects of the pollution episodes on health are closely related to factors such as the gender and age of patients, as well as the length of their hospital stays.