Association of ambient Particulate matter 2.5 with intensive care unit admission due to pneumonia: a distributed lag non-linear model

Air pollution in China has become a major environmental problem. There is a lack of evidence on the impact of haze (especially PM2.5) on intensive care unit admission due to pneumonia (ICUp). We hypothesized that PM2.5 was independently associated with ICUp and there was a non-linear time lag effect. All ICU admissions occurred from January 1, 2014 to December 31, 2016 in Sir Run-Run Shaw hospital were included in the study. The primary reasons for admission were categorized into pneumonia and non-pneumonia. Distributed lag non-linear model (DLNM) was built to account for the effect of air quality parameters in both value and temporal lag dimensions. There was a total of 7487 ICU admissions during the study period, including 391 admissions due to pneumonia. The DLNM showed that the relative risk (RR) of ICUp increased with PM2.5 concentrations. At a PM2.5 concentration of 200 mcg/m3, the RR increased from 1.06 (95% CI: 0.57–1.95) at day 0 to 1.40 (95% CI: 1.05–1.86) at day 3, and returned normal at day 6 (RR: 1.13; 95% CI: 0.83–1.55). The study showed that PM2.5 was independently associated with the risk of ICUp, and the maximum effect occurred at 3 to 4 days after exposure.