Fine particulate air pollution and hospital admissions for congestive heart failure: a case-crossover study in Taipei.

This study was undertaken to determine whether there was an association between fine particles (PM₂.₅) levels and hospital admissions for congestive heart failure (CHF) in Taipei, Taiwan. Hospital admissions for CHF and ambient air pollution data for Taipei were obtained for the period 2006-2010. The relative risk of hospital admissions was estimated using a case-crossover approach, controlling for weather variables, day of the week, seasonality and long-term time trends. For the single pollutant model (without adjustment for other pollutants), increased CHF admissions were significantly associated with PM₂.₅ both on warm days (>23 °C) and cool days (<23 °C), with an interquartile range increase associated with a 13% (95% CI = 9-17%) and 3% (95% CI = 0-7%) increase in CHF admissions, respectively. In the two-pollutant models, PM₂.₅ remained significant after the inclusion of SO₂ or O₃ both on warm and cool days. This study provides evidence that higher levels of PM₂.₅ increase the risk of hospital admissions for CHF.