Susceptibility to short-term ozone exposure and cardiovascular and respiratory mortality by previous hospitalizations

BACKGROUND: Ozone (O(3)) has been associated with cardiorespiratory mortality although few studies have explored susceptible populations based on prior disease. We aimed to investigate the role of previous hospitalization on the association between short-term exposure to O(3) and cardiovascular (CV) and respiratory mortality. METHODS: We performed time series analyses using generalized additive models and case-crossover on 136,624 CV and 23,281 respiratory deaths in Stockholm County (1990–2010). Deaths were linked to hospital admissions data. We constructed 2-day and 7-day averages using daily 8-h maximum for O(3) and hourly values for PM(2.5), PM(10), NO(2), and NO(x) from a fixed monitor. RESULTS: We observed a 0.7% (95% CI: 0.1%, 1.3%) and 2.7% (95% CI: 0.8%, 4.6%) higher risk of CV and respiratory death per 10 μg/m(3) higher 2-day and 7-day average O(3) respectively. Individuals previously hospitalized for myocardial infarction demonstrated 1.8% (95% CI: 0.4%, 3.4%) higher risk of CV death per 10 μg/m(3) higher 2-day average O(3) and similar associations were observed in individuals with no previous hospitalization for any cause. Individuals with previous hospitalizations did not show susceptibility towards O(3)-related risk of respiratory mortality. We observed no associations for other pollutants. CONCLUSION: Short-term ozone exposure is associated with CV and respiratory mortality and our results may suggest higher susceptibility to CV mortality following O(3) exposure in individuals previously hospitalized for myocardial infarction. Higher risks were also observed in individuals with cardiovascular death as their first presentation of disease. ELECTRONIC SUPPLEMENTARY MATERIAL: The online version of this article (10.1186/s12940-018-0384-z) contains supplementary material, which is available to authorized users.