Impacts of air pollution on health: evidence from longitudinal cohort data of patients with cardiovascular diseases

This study uses longitudinal cohort data to estimate the impacts of air pollution on health outcomes among people first hospitalised with heart diseases. Despite the generally low level of pollution in Australia, we find that acute exposure to pollution increases readmissions to hospitals within 3–12 months after discharge and is more evident among those suffering from heart failure. We further show that chronic exposure to air pollution increases the risk of death within 72 months, hospital admissions and general practitioner (GP) visits. Patients with coronary heart disease or cerebrovascular disease are the most affected groups. Finally, a cost saving of $1.3 billion will be generated to the health sector, if the monthly concentration of PM₁₀ and CO was lowered to 15.49 µg/m³ and 122.99 µg/m³, respectively. The findings from our study emphasize the need for policies that target significant reduction in ambient PM₁₀ and CO to decrease the demand for scarce healthcare resources for cardiac diseases.