Objective: Gout is a chronic disease caused by the deposition of sodium urate (MSU) crystals. Available data on the association between environmental hazards and gout are scarce. The present study was present to investigate the relationship between short-term exposure to air pollution and hospitalizations for acute gout from 2016 to 2020 in Anqing City, China.
Methods: Daily records of hospital admissions for acute gout in Anqing from 1 January 2016 to 31 December 2020 were retrieved from the tertiary first-class hospitals in Anqing. Air pollutants and meteorological data were obtained from the China Environmental Monitoring Station and China Meteorological Data Service Center respectively. We used a time-series analysis to explore the association between air pollution (NO₂, O₃, and CO) and hospitalizations for acute gout, and conducted stratified analyses by gender, age and season.
Results: We observed an association between NO₂ and hospitalizations for gout (lag 0, relative risk (RR):1.022, 95% confidence interval (CI):1.004– 1.041). For every 1 mg/m³ increase in CO concentration, hospitalizations for gout increased by 3.9% (lag 11 days, RR=1.039, 95% CI: 1.004– 1.076). Intriguingly, there was a negative association between O₃ and hospitalizations for gout (lag0, RR=0.986, 95% CI: 0.976– 0.996). Stratified analyses showed that exposure to high levels of NO₂ was considered to be more vulnerable to gout in cold season.
Conclusion: Our study showed that short-term exposure to NO₂ and CO has a significant effect on hospitalizations for acute gout.
Keywords: gout, air pollutants, carbon monoxide, nitrogen dioxide, ozone