Abstract
For evaluating the influence of air pollution on health, a monitoring system was adopted by the regional Medical Association in K city. By the monitoring physicians, the number of patients with asthmatic bronchitis (AB), chronic bronchitis (CB) and bronchial asthma (BA) and also the total number of patients reported on one fixed day every month. The ratio of the patients mentioned above to the total number of patients (RPT) was calculated for 10 years. The relationships between these ratios and air pollution concentrations were evaluated by statistical methods. The results were as follows: 1) By correlation analysis, statistically significant relationships were found between AB and SOx, NO2, SO2and the total sulfur oxide emmission. Furthermore, significant relationships were observed between BA and NO2, SO2. 2) In the multiple regression analysis using the monthly average concentrations of SOx, NO2, Oxand suspended particulate matters (SPM) as predicator variables, the PRT regression equations of AB and CB were statistically significant. 3) In the canonical correlation analysis, in which the monthly average RPTs of AB, CB and BA were used as health indicators and the monthly average concentrations of SOx, NO2, Oxand SPM as environment indicators, a statistically significant correlation was observed between the two indicator groups. The scattergram of canonical scores also showed corresponding changes in both groups. These findings demonstrate that the monitoring system was useful and informative in evaluating the influence of air pollution on the health condition of residents.
