Ambient Air Quality and Hospital Admissions in Gjakova: A Time Series Analysis

Even at historically low levels of air pollution, epidemiological time series studies carried out in cities across the globe have documented its substantial detrimental health effects. A time series analysis of counts of respiratory hospital admissions in Gjakova and outdoor air pollutants was performed, applying a General Additive Model with a Poisson distribution, controlling for time trends and meteorological factors over a 4-year period (2020–2023) with different time lags (0–7 days). The effects were further analyzed per age group (children and adults). We found significant associations between gaseous pollutants, mainly NO2, and respiratory disease-related hospital admissions in the city. The strongest association between NO2 and total hospital admissions was observed after a lag of 6 days, with an increase of 0.14 cases per 10 μg/m3 increase in concentration. The effects were stronger in adults. An adverse effect was also seen with SO2, but not particulate pollution. Our findings call for greater awareness regarding environmental protection and the implementation of effective measures to improve air quality, which may reduce the risk of adverse health effects.