Linking environmental and health care databases: assessing the health effects of environmental pollutants

The assessment of pollutant effects on health status requires the mergence and analysis of two different databases: pollution measurements and health care information. This paper compares two subsets of these data: Ohio Environmental Protection Agency data on ambient air pollutants and Ohio Medicare...

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Bibliographic Details
Published in:	International journal of bio-medical computing Vol. 32; no. 3-4; p. 279
Main Authors:	Brooks, J H, Renz, K K, Kattoua, S, White, S E, Richardson, S L, Delgigante, J
Format:	Journal Article
Language:	English
Published:	Ireland 01-05-1993
Subjects:	Air Pollutants - adverse effects Air Pollutants - analysis Computer Communication Networks Databases, Factual Diagnosis-Related Groups - statistics & numerical data Humans Medicare Ohio - epidemiology Patient Discharge - statistics & numerical data Professional Review Organizations Regression Analysis Respiratory Tract Diseases - etiology Sulfur Dioxide - adverse effects Sulfur Dioxide - analysis United States United States Environmental Protection Agency United States Ohio
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Summary:	The assessment of pollutant effects on health status requires the mergence and analysis of two different databases: pollution measurements and health care information. This paper compares two subsets of these data: Ohio Environmental Protection Agency data on ambient air pollutants and Ohio Medicare data on respiratory diseases. Small area analysis was performed to assess statewide variations in hospital admission rates for respiratory diseases. The ambient air pollutant levels for each small area were compared to the variations in respiratory disease rates. Five groups of diseases correlated with pollutant levels. In addition, pollutant levels were significantly associated with medical complications. This study demonstrates the feasibility and benefit of linking environmental and health care databases and suggests the need for a more comprehensive, automated analysis of more pollutants and diseases.
ISSN:	0020-7101
DOI:	10.1016/0020-7101(93)90020-7