Disparities in global disease burden attributed to ambient particulate matter pollution and household air pollution from solid fuels

Air pollution from Ambient Particulate Matter (APM) and Household Air Pollution (HAP) is a significant global health issue, causing millions of deaths each year. This study provides a comprehensive assessment of their combined disease burden across 204 countries from 1990 to 2021, examining trends and associations with the Socio-Demographic Index (SDI). Using data from the Global Burden of Disease 2021 and World Bank databases, we extracted Disability-Adjusted Life Years (DALYs), age-standardized DALY rates (ASDR) for all-cause diseases and seven conditions, and covariant. Estimated Annual Percentage Change and quasi-Poisson generalized linear models were used. Results indicate a 54.93 % increase in APM-related DALYs and a 47.39 % decrease in HAP-related DALYs. APM-related DALYs were higher in male than female, yet in certain regions, the burden of some HAP-related diseases was higher in females than in males. Higher SDI regions showed a significant decline in HAP-related disease burden, while APM-related impacts continued to rise in lower SDI areas. Recently, APM-related DALYs have exceeded those from HAP in High, High-middle, and Middle SDI regions, while HAP remains the predominant burden in Low-middle and Low SDI regions. The Eastern Mediterranean and South-East Asian regions reported the highest APM-related ASDR, whereas the African region faced the largest HAP burden. For every 0.01 increase in SDI, APM-related ASDR rose by 1.03 %, and HAP-related ASDR fell by 0.79 %. Urgent actions, such as industrial emission reduction in high SDI areas and improved household energy access in low SDI areas, are essential.