Abstract

Background:

Potential adverse health effects of Asian dust exposure have been reported, but systematic reviews and quantitative syntheses are lacking.

Objective:

We reviewed epidemiologic studies that assessed the risk of mortality, hospital admissions, and symptoms/dysfunction associated with exposure to Asian dust.

Methods:

We performed a systematic search of PubMed and Web of Science to identify studies that reported the association between Asian dust exposure and human health outcomes. We conducted separate meta-analyses using a random-effects model for mortality and hospital admissions for a specific health outcome and assessed pooled estimates for each lag when at least three studies were available for a specific lag.

Results:

We identified 89 studies that met our inclusion criteria for the systematic review, and 21 studies were included in the meta-analysis. The pooled estimates (percentage changes) of mortality from circulatory and respiratory causes for Asian dust days vs. non-Asian dust days were 2.33% [95% confidence interval (CI): 0.76, 3.93] increase at lag 0 and 3.99% (95% CI: 0.08, 8.06) increase at lag 3, respectively. The increased risk for hospital admissions for respiratory disease, asthma, and pneumonia peaked at lag 3 by 8.85% (95% CI: 0.80, 17.55), 14.55% (95% CI: 6.74, 22.94), and 8.51% (95% CI: 2.89, 14.44), respectively. Seven of 12 studies reported reduced peak expiratory flow, and 16 of 21 studies reported increased respiratory symptoms associated with Asian dust exposure. There were substantial variations between the studies in definitions of Asian dust, study designs, model specifications, and confounder controls.

Discussion:

We found evidence of increased mortality and hospital admissions for circulatory and respiratory events. However, the number of studies included in the meta-analysis was not large and further evidences are merited to strengthen our conclusions. Standardized protocols for epidemiological studies would facilitate interstudy comparisons. https://doi.org/10.1289/EHP5312

中文翻译：

---

亚洲粉尘对健康的影响：系统评价和荟萃分析。

摘要

背景：

据报道，亚洲人接触粉尘可能对健康造成不利影响，但缺乏系统的评价和定量综合方法。

目的：

我们回顾了流行病学研究，这些研究评估了与亚洲粉尘接触所致的死亡风险，入院风险以及症状/功能障碍。

方法：

我们对PubMed和Web of Science进行了系统的搜索，以鉴定报告亚洲尘埃暴露与人类健康结果之间相关性的研究。我们使用随机效应模型对特定健康结局的死亡率和住院人数进行了单独的荟萃分析，并且当至少有三项研究可用于特定时滞时，评估每个时滞的汇总估计值。

结果：

我们确定了89项符合我们纳入标准的研究用于系统评价，其中21项研究被纳入荟萃分析。亚洲沙尘日与非亚洲沙尘日相比，循环和呼吸系统死亡率的汇总估计值（百分比变化）为2.33％[95％置信区间（CI）：0.76、3.93]，时差为0和3.99％（95 ％CI：0.08、8.06）分别在滞后3时增加。呼吸系统疾病，哮喘和肺炎住院的风险增加在滞后3达到高峰，分别为8.85％（95％CI：0.80，17.55），14.55％（95％CI：6.74，22.94）和8.51％（95％CI） ：2.89，14.44）。12项研究中的7项报告峰值呼气流量减少，而21项研究中的16项报告称与亚洲粉尘接触相关的呼吸道症状增加。

讨论：

我们发现增加了循环系统和呼吸系统事件的死亡率和住院率的证据​​。但是，荟萃分析中包括的研究数量并不多，值得进一步证实我们的结论的证据。流行病学研究的标准化方案将促进研究之间的比较。https://doi.org/10.1289/EHP5312