A cross-sectional study on the pulmonary function of residents in two urban areas with different PM10 concentrations: data from the fourth Korea national health and nutrition examination survey (KNHANES) 2007–2009

Abstract

According to a 2015 meta-analysis published by the Korea Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (KCDC) [6], an 10 μg/m3 increase in PM10 concentration increased hospitalization rates of patients with chronic obstructive pulmonary disease (COPD) by 2.7% (95% confidence interval [CI], 1.9–3.6%) and mortality by 1.1% (95% CI, 0.8–1.4%). [...]female with low educational level and household income had higher pulmonary function in Seoul than Jeju, which was in contrast to the results of higher socioeconomic status group (Table 4). [...]in the present study, the proportion of smokers in female is much lower than that of non-smokers (Table 4). [...]for female group with a lower percentage of smokers than male group, there may not have been a significant change in pulmonary function over the long term exposure of PM10. For this reason, smokers living in Jeju may have abnormally higher FEV1p than non-smokers (Table 3). [...]age may be a confounding variable, and it may not be possible to precisely exclude the effects of smoking on lung function.