Effects of heavy hazy episode on daily life and health among residents in Lishan district of Anshan city

ObjectiveTo assess acute effects of the continuous and heavy hazy weather occurred in January 2013 on the quality of daily life and health of residents in Lishan district of Anshan city.MethodsA total of 2 350 subjects aged over 18 years were randomly selected from Lishan district of Anshan with stratified multi-stage cluster sampling method.Demographic information,the influences of hazy weather on daily life,irritating symptoms,consultations in hospitals and/or drug administration for respiratory and/or cardiovascular diseases,and methods taken to cope with the bad weather were investigated during 1-7,January 2013.ResultsThe response rate was 91.15%.Of the residents,60% and 70%felt smoky and reduced outdoor activities or exercises;1/4th reported dusty smell in the air and cought;1/5th had throat pain or misted eye.We found significantly positive correlations among the scores of daily life influence,irritating symptoms,medical consultations and/or drug administration for respiratory or cardiovascular diseases after adjustment for age,sex,education,address,smoking and disease history,with the correlation coefficients of 0.27 to 0.76.ConclusionThe heavy hazy episode significantly increased the incidence of respiratory and other mucosa irritating symptoms and reduced the daily life quality of the residents and the residents with respiratory or cardiovascular diseases are more likely to be influenced by the heavy air pollution.