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American Journal of Epidemiology Advance Access originally published online on September 9, 2009
American Journal of Epidemiology 2009 170(8):1057-1066; doi:10.1093/aje/kwp217
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American Journal of Epidemiology © 2009 The Authors
This is an Open Access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution Non-Commercial License (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc/2.0/uk/) which permits unrestricted non-commercial use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original work is properly cited.

ORIGINAL CONTRIBUTIONS

Air Pollution and Hospitalization for Headache in Chile

Robert E. Dales, Sabit Cakmak and Claudia Blanco Vidal

Correspondence to Dr. Sabit Cakmak, Division of Statistics, Health Canada, 50 Columbine Driveway, Ottawa, Ontario, Canada K1A 0K9 (e-mail: sabit_cakmak{at}hc-sc.gc.ca).

Received for publication February 11, 2009. Accepted for publication June 25, 2009.

The authors performed a time-series analysis to test the association between air pollution and daily numbers of hospitalizations for headache in 7 Chilean urban centers during the period 2001–2005. Results were adjusted for day of the week and humidex. Three categories of headache—migraine, headache with cause specified, and headache not otherwise specified—were all associated with air pollution. Relative risks for migraine associated with interquartile-range increases in specific air pollutants were as follows: 1.11 (95% confidence interval (CI): 1.06, 1.17) for a 1.15-ppm increase in carbon monoxide; 1.11 (95% CI: 1.06, 1.17) for a 28.97-µg/m3 increase in nitrogen dioxide; 1.10 (95% CI: 1.04, 1.17) for a 6.20-ppb increase in sulfur dioxide; 1.17 (95% CI: 1.08, 1.26) for a 69.51-ppb increase in ozone; 1.11 (95% CI: 1.00, 1.19) for a 21.51-µg/m3 increase in particulate matter less than 2.5 µm in aerodynamic diameter (PM2.5); and 1.10 (95% CI: 1.04, 1.15) for a 37.79-µg/m3 increase in particulate matter less than 10 µm in aerodynamic diameter (PM10). There was no significant effect modification by age, sex, or season. The authors conclude that air pollution appears to increase the risk of headache in Santiago Province. If the relation is causal, the morbidity associated with headache should be considered when estimating the burden of illness and costs associated with poor air quality.

air pollution; environment; headache

Abbreviations: ICD-10, International Classification of Diseases, Tenth Revision; PM2.5, particulate matter less than 2.5 µm in aerodynamic diameter; PM10, particulate matter less than 10 µm in aerodynamic diameter


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