Does it measure up? A comparison of pollution exposure assessment techniques applied across hospitals in England
File(s)ijerph-20-03852-v2.pdf (5.11 MB)
Published version
Author(s)
de Preux, Laure
Rizmie, Dheeya
Fecht, Daniela
Gulliver, John
Wang, Weiyi
Type
Journal Article
Abstract
Weighted averages of air pollution measurements from monitoring stations are commonly assigned as air pollution exposures to specific locations. However, monitoring networks are spatially sparse and fail to adequately capture the spatial variability. This may introduce bias and exposure misclassification. Advanced methods of exposure assessment are rarely practicable in estimating daily concentrations over large geographical areas. We propose an accessible method using temporally adjusted land use regression models (daily LUR). We applied this to produce daily concentration estimates for nitrogen dioxide, ozone, and particulate matter in a healthcare setting across England and compared them against geographically extrapolated measurements (inverse distance weighting) from air pollution monitors. The daily LUR estimates outperformed IDW. The precision gains varied across air pollutants, suggesting that, for nitrogen dioxide and particulate matter, the health effects may be underestimated. The results emphasised the importance of spatial heterogeneity in investigating the societal impacts of air pollution, illustrating improvements achievable at a lower computational cost.
Date Issued
2023-03-01
Date Acceptance
2023-02-15
Citation
International Journal of Environmental Research and Public Health, 2023, 20 (5), pp.1-26
ISSN
1660-4601
Publisher
MDPI AG
Start Page
1
End Page
26
Journal / Book Title
International Journal of Environmental Research and Public Health
Volume
20
Issue
5
Copyright Statement
© 2023 by the authors. Licensee MDPI, Basel, Switzerland. This article is an open access article distributed under the terms and conditions of the Creative Commons Attribution (CC BY) license (https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/).
License URL
Identifier
https://www.mdpi.com/1660-4601/20/5/3852
Publication Status
Published
Article Number
3852
Date Publish Online
2023-02-21