Association between dust weather and number of admissions for patients with respiratory diseases in spring in Lanzhou.

Controlling the confounding factors on respiratory hospitalizations such as long-term trend, meteorological factor, atmospheric pollution, and calendar effect, the research is designed to study the effect of sand-dust weather on respiratory diseases from 2001 to 2005 in Lanzhou City on the basis of the semi-parametric generalized additive model (GAM). The results indicate that there is an association between sand-dust weather and the increase in respiratory hospitalizations, and with lagging effect. There are gender and age differences in the effect of sand-dust weather on health, on male severer than on female (RR value being 1.148 for male, while 1.144 for female without statistical significance), and much greater on the aged ≥ 65 years than on < 65 years (RR value being 1.266 for ≥ 65 yr, and 1.119 for < 65 yr).