Prolonged Life Expectancy for Those Dying of Stroke by Achieving the Daily PM(2.5) Targets

This time‐series study collects data on stroke‐related mortality, years of life lost (YLL), air pollution, and meteorological conditions in 96 Chinese cities from 2013 to 2016 and proposes a three‐stage strategy to generate the national and regional estimations of avoidable YLL, gains in life expectancy and stroke‐related population attributable fraction by postulating that the daily fine particulate matter (PM(2.5)) has been kept under certain standards. A total of 1 318 911 stroke deaths are analyzed. Each 10 µg m(−3) increment in PM(2.5) at lag(03) is associated with a city‐mean increase of 0.31 (95% CI: 0.19, 0.44) years of life lost from stroke. A number of 914.11 (95% CI: 538.28, 1288.94) years of city‐mean life lost from stoke could be avoided by attaining the WHO's Air Quality Guidelines (AQG) (25 µg m(−3)). Moreover, by applying the AQG standard, 0.11 (0.08, 0.15) years of life lost might be prevented for each death, and about 0.91% (95% CI: 0.62%, 1.19%) of the total years of life lost from stroke might be explained by the daily excess PM(2.5) exposure. This study indicates that stroke patients can have a longer life expectancy if stricter PM(2.5) standards are put in place, especially ischemic stroke patients.