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Short-term effects of fine particulate matter pollution on daily health events in Latin America: a systematic review and meta-analysis

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  • Published:
International Journal of Public Health

Abstract

Objectives

Ambient air pollution is among the leading risks for health worldwide and by 2050 will largely overcome deaths due to unsafe sanitation and malaria, but local evidence from Latin America (LA) is scarce. We aimed to summarize the effect of short-term exposure to fine particulate air pollution (PM2.5) on morbidity and mortality in Latin America and evaluate evidence coverage and quality, using systematic review and meta-analysis.

Methods

The comprehensive search (six online databases and hand-searching) identified studies investigating the short-term associations between PM2.5 and daily health events in LA. Two reviewers independently accessed the internal validity of the studies and used random-effect models in the meta-analysis.

Results

We retrieved 1628 studies. Nine were elected for the qualitative analysis and seven for the quantitative analyses. Each 10 µg/m3 increments in daily PM2.5 concentrations was significantly associated with increased risk for respiratory and cardiovascular mortality in all-ages (polled RR = 1.02, 95% CI, 1.02–1.02 and RR = 1.01, 95% CI , 1.01–1.02, respectively).

Conclusions

Short-term exposure to PM2.5 in LA is significantly associated with increased risk for respiratory and cardiovascular mortality. Evidence is concentrated in few cities and some presented high risk of bias.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Laboratory of Experimental Air Pollution (LIM05), Department of Pathology, School of Medicine, University of São Paulo, São Paulo, SP, Brazil

    Laís Fajersztajn & Paulo Saldiva

  2. Institute for Advanced Studies of the University of São Paulo-IEA, São Paulo, SP, Brazil

    Laís Fajersztajn & Paulo Saldiva

  3. Collective Health Pos-Graduation Program, Catholic University of Santos, Santos, SP, Brazil

    Luiz Alberto Amador Pereira

  4. Institute of Physical Medicine and Rehabilitation, University of São Paulo, São Paulo, SP, Brazil

    Victor Figueiredo Leite

  5. Health Technology Assessment Unit, Institute of Health Education and Science, German Hospital Oswaldo Cruz, São Paulo, SP, Brazil

    Anna Maria Buehler

Authors
  1. Laís Fajersztajn
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  2. Paulo Saldiva
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  3. Luiz Alberto Amador Pereira
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  4. Victor Figueiredo Leite
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  5. Anna Maria Buehler
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Corresponding author

Correspondence to Laís Fajersztajn.

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Ethical statement

The present manuscript is an original work, has not been previously published whole or in part, and is not under consideration for publication elsewhere. We did not fabricate data. We did not present data, text or theories from other authors as if they are ours (no “plagiarism”). All authors contributed sufficiently to the scientific work, read the manuscript, agreed the work is ready for submission to a journal and accepted responsibility for the manuscript’s content. All authors do not present actual or potential conflicts of interest regarding the submitted.

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Fajersztajn, L., Saldiva, P., Pereira, L.A.A. et al. Short-term effects of fine particulate matter pollution on daily health events in Latin America: a systematic review and meta-analysis. Int J Public Health 62, 729–738 (2017). https://doi.org/10.1007/s00038-017-0960-y

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  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s00038-017-0960-y

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