Association of air pollution with mental and behavioral disorders in young and middle-aged adults

This study investigated the association between air pollutants and mental and behavioral disorders (MBD) among young and middle-aged people. MBD daily outpatient visits, air pollutants and meteorological data for 2017–2019 were collected. Daily data on MBD outpatient visits, air pollutants, and meteorological conditions were analyzed using a distributed lag nonlinear model (DLNM) within a generalized additive model (GAM) framework with quasi-Poisson regression. We controlled for long-term trends, day of the week, holidays, temperature, and humidity. Stratified analyses by gender were also performed. A total of 24,689 outpatient cases of MBD, 11,415 outpatient cases of depression, and 7,598 outpatient cases of anxiety were collected during the study period. From 2017 to 2019, the presence of high concentrations of SO 2 and NO 2 significantly increased the number of outpatient visits for MBD in young and middle-aged adults. High concentrations of SO 2 , NO 2 and PM 2.5 significantly increased the number of outpatient visits for depression in young and middle-aged adults. Similarly, high concentrations of SO 2 , NO 2 , and PM 10 have been observed to significantly increase outpatient visits for anxiety in this age group. This study suggested that exposure to high concentrations of air pollutants, especially SO 2 and NO 2 , will significantly increase the risk of outpatient MBD, depression, and anxiety in young and middle-aged adults.