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Applying Nonparametric Methods to Analyses of Short-Term Fine Particulate Matter Exposure and Hospital Admissions for Cardiovascular Diseases among Older Adults

Author

Listed:
  • Louis Anthony (Tony) Cox

    (Cox Associates Consulting, Denver, CO 80218, USA)

  • Xiaobin Liu

    (Gradient, Cambridge, MA 02138, USA)

  • Liuhua Shi

    (Gradient, Cambridge, MA 02138, USA)

  • Ke Zu

    (Gradient, Cambridge, MA 02138, USA)

  • Julie Goodman

    (Gradient, Cambridge, MA 02138, USA)

Abstract

Short-term exposure to fine particulate matter (PM 2.5 ) has been associated with increased risks of cardiovascular diseases (CVDs), but whether such associations are supportive of a causal relationship is unclear, and few studies have employed formal causal analysis methods to address this. We employed nonparametric methods to examine the associations between daily concentrations of PM 2.5 and hospital admissions (HAs) for CVD among adults aged 75 years and older in Texas, USA. We first quantified the associations in partial dependence plots generated using the random forest approach. We next used a Bayesian network learning algorithm to identify conditional dependencies between CVD HAs of older men and women and several predictor variables. We found that geographic location (county), time (e.g., month and year), and temperature satisfied necessary information conditions for being causes of CVD HAs among older men and women, but daily PM 2.5 concentrations did not. We also found that CVD HAs of disjoint subpopulations were strongly predictive of CVD HAs among older men and women, indicating the presence of unmeasured confounders. Our findings from nonparametric analyses do not support PM 2.5 as a direct cause of CVD HAs among older adults.

Suggested Citation

  • Louis Anthony (Tony) Cox & Xiaobin Liu & Liuhua Shi & Ke Zu & Julie Goodman, 2017. "Applying Nonparametric Methods to Analyses of Short-Term Fine Particulate Matter Exposure and Hospital Admissions for Cardiovascular Diseases among Older Adults," IJERPH, MDPI, vol. 14(9), pages 1-14, September.
    • Handle: RePEc:gam:jijerp:v:14:y:2017:i:9:p:1051-:d:111638
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    References listed on IDEAS

    as
    1. Louis Anthony (Tony) Cox, 2016. "Rethinking the Meaning of Concentration–Response Functions and the Estimated Burden of Adverse Health Effects Attributed to Exposure Concentrations," Risk Analysis, John Wiley & Sons, vol. 36(9), pages 1770-1779, September.
    2. Pearl Judea, 2010. "An Introduction to Causal Inference," The International Journal of Biostatistics, De Gruyter, vol. 6(2), pages 1-62, February.
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    Cited by:

    1. Wang, Yuze & Eriksson, Tor & Luo, Nengsheng, 2023. "The health impacts of two policies regulating SO2 air pollution: Evidence from China," China Economic Review, Elsevier, vol. 78(C).
    2. Jongmin Oh & Changwoo Han & Dong-Wook Lee & Yoonyoung Jang & Yoon-Jung Choi & Hyun Joo Bae & Soontae Kim & Eunhee Ha & Yun-Chul Hong & Youn-Hee Lim, 2020. "Short-Term Exposure to Fine Particulate Matter and Hospitalizations for Acute Lower Respiratory Infection in Korean Children: A Time-Series Study in Seven Metropolitan Cities," IJERPH, MDPI, vol. 18(1), pages 1-15, December.

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