Association Between Air Pollutants And The Risk Of Conjunctivitis In Urumqi,China:A Time Series Analysis

Objective:Conjunctivitis is one of the most common ocular surface diseases.Moreover,ambient air pollution has always been a global public health problem,and its impact on health has also attracted much attention.Exposure to ambient air pollution is a major risk factor for diseases worldwide,and environmental factors play a key role in many diseases.However,few studies have linked ambient air pollution with conjunctivitis or even eye disease in Xinjiang.We aimed to evaluate the possible association between air pollutants and the risk of conjunctivitis outpatient visits in Urumqi.Methods:First,data from 8494 patients with conjunctivitis in the Department of Ophthalmology of The First Affiliated Hospital of Xinjiang Medical University,Urumqi,China,from January 1,2017,to December 31,2020,and the daily mean carbon monoxide（CO）,fine particulate matter with a median aerometric diameter of less than 2.5μm and 10μm(PM_2.5and PM₁₀),ozone（O₃）,nitrogen dioxide（NO₂）and sulfur dioxide（SO₂）concentrations in the same period were collected.Second,a Poisson-like generalized linear regression model combined with a distributed lag nonlinear model（DLNM）was used to analyze the association between air pollutant exposure and the relative risk of daily outpatient visits for conjunctivitis.And a stratified analysis of the conjunctivitis population by gender,age,ethnicity,and season with a lag time of 3 days was performed.Results:The final analysis showed that short-term CO exposure was significantly associated with the relative risk of daily outpatient conjunctivitis,while other air pollutants were not.When the lag time was 3days,the relative risk of short-term CO exposure on daily outpatient conjunctivitis was significant,and the corresponding effect was estimated to be 1.006（1.002,1.010）.In addition,through further subgroup analysis,it was found that females,the 19-64 age group,the warm season population and the Han population were vulnerable to short-term CO exposure.Conclusions:This study confirms the evidence that short-term CO exposure is associated with an increased risk of conjunctivitis outpatient visits.In addition,the entire population is called upon to enhance awareness of environmental protection and disease prevention.