Rapid assessment on impacts of heavy hazy episode on daily life and health of citizens in Shenyang city

ObjectiveTo assess acute effects of continuous and heavy hazy weather occurred in December 2012 and January 2013 on daily life and health of the citizens in Shenyang city.MethodsA telephone investigation was conducted during February 4-7,2013 among 439 citizens aged over 18 years selected with simple random sampling in Shenyang city.Demographic information,the influences of hazy weather on daily life,irritating symptoms,hospital visit and/or drug administration for respiratory and/or cardiovascular diseases,and measures taken to cope with the bad weather were investigated.ResultsThe response rate of the telephone investigation was 71.0%.Of the citizens,78.5%felt smoky,58.8%reported depressive mood,57.9%reduced outdoor activity or exercise,and 55.6%reported dusty smell in the air,respectively.There were 36.4%,26.2%,and 31.2%of the citizens reporting throat pain,eye irritating,and cough.We found significantly positive correlations between the scores of daily life influence,irritating symptoms and hospital visit and/or drug administration score for respiratory or cardiovascular diseases after adjustments for age,gender,education,smoking,and disease history,with the correlation coefficients of from 0.140 to 0.382(P<0.01 for all).ConclusionThe heavy hazy episode significantly increased the incidence of respiratory and other mucosa irritating symptoms and reduced the daily life quality of the citizens,and the patients with respiratory or cardiovascular diseases may more likely to be influenced by the heavy air pollution.