Dust air pollution and hospital visits for respiratory, cardiovascular, and eye diseases in Eastern Iran

One of the most significant environmental concerns that has been spreading in recent years due to human interference and irrational use of natural resources is the phenomenon of dust. This study investigated the relationship between dust air pollution and the burden of daily hospital visits due to respiratory, cardiovascular, and eye diseases. In this cross-sectional study, data on dust air pollution were collected from the Environment office and data on daily visits to hospitals from the hospital information system (HIS) through a checklist. Data analysis was performed using SPSS 22 software and Pearson correlation coefficient at a significance level of < 0.05. The average dust air pollution index in the studied area was 2233.71 ± 4737.52 µg/m³. The mean number of hospital visits for various conditions were as follows: pneumonia, 63.76 ± 84.72; eye diseases, 46.8 ± 70.2; chronic obstructive pulmonary disease (COPD), 62.5 ± 83.3; asthma, 64.7 ± 87.0; dyspnea, 63.8 ± 90.8; and cardiovascular diseases, 56.5 ± 66.2 patients. A significant moderate positive linear correlation was found between dust air pollution levels and daily hospital visits for pneumonia, dyspnea, COPD, asthma, eye diseases, and cardiovascular diseases (p < 0.0001). As air pollution increased, the number of hospital visits for these conditions also rose. The strongest correlation was observed between dust air pollution and dyspnea (r = 0.497), while the weakest correlation was found between dust air pollution and eye diseases (r = 0.406). Exposure to dust air pollution was correlated with hospital admissions for respiratory diseases, such as pneumonia, asthma, and COPD, as well as cardiovascular diseases and eye issues. It seems that using personal protection strategies by habitants to reduce dust exposure and implementation of long-term strategies by policymakers for controlling dust air pollution especially dust controlling for this region are necessary.