TY  - JOUR
JF  - ATMOSPHERIC ENVIRONMENT
VL  - 45
SN  - 1352-2310
EP  - 4159
AV  - restricted
N1  - Department of Meteorology, Eötvös Loránd University, Pázmány Péter st. 1/A, HU-1117 Budapest, Hungary            
            Department of Climatology and Landscape Ecology, University of Szeged, P.O.B. 653, HU-6701 Szeged, Hungary            
            Thorax Surgery Hospital, Csongrád County, Alkotmány u. 36, H-6772 Deszk, Hungary            
            Cited By :19            
            Export Date: 8 December 2022            
            CODEN: AENVE            
            Correspondence Address: Makra, L.; Department of Climatology and Landscape Ecology, P.O.B. 653, HU-6701 Szeged, Hungary; email: makra@geo.u-szeged.hu
UR  - https://doi.org/10.1016/j.atmosenv.2011.05.024
ID  - publicatio29997
Y1  - 2011///
IS  - 25
SP  - 4152
TI  - Multivariate analysis of respiratory problems and their connection with meteorological parameters and the main biological and chemical air pollutants
A1  -  Matyasovszky István
A1  -  Makra László
A1  -  Bálint Beatrix
A1  -  Guba Z
A1  -  Sümeghy Zoltán
N2  - The aim of the study is to analyse the joint effect of 
biological (pollen) and chemical air pollutants, as well as 
meteorological variables, on the hospital admissions of 
respiratory problems for the Szeged region in Southern Hungary. 
The data set used covers a nine-year period (1999-2007) and is 
unique in the sense that it includes-besides the daily number of 
respiratory hospital admissions-not just the hourly mean 
concentrations of CO, PM 10, NO, NO 2, O 3 and SO 2 with 
meteorological variables (temperature, global solar flux, 
relative humidity, air pressure and wind speed), but two pollen 
variables (Ambrosia and total pollen excluding Ambrosia) as 
well. The analysis was performed using three age categories for 
the pollen season of Ambrosia and the pollen-free season. 
Meteorological elements and air pollutants are clustered in 
order to define optimum environmental conditions of high patient 
numbers. ANOVA was then used to determine whether cluster-
related mean patient numbers differ significantly. Furthermore, 
two novel procedures are applied here: factor analysis including 
a special transformation and a time-varying multivariate linear 
regression that makes it possible to determine the rank of 
importance of the influencing variables in respiratory hospital 
admissions, and also compute the relative importance of the 
parameters affecting respiratory disorders. Both techniques 
revealed that Ambrosia pollen is an important variable that 
influences hospital admissions (an increase of 10 pollen grains 
m -3 can imply an increase of around 24% in patient numbers). 
The role of chemical and meteorological parameters is also 
significant, but their weights vary according to the seasons and 
the methods. Clearer results are obtained for the pollination 
season of Ambrosia. Here, a 10 ?g m -3 increase in O 3 implies a 
patient number response from -17% to +11%. Wind speed is a 
surprisingly important variable, where a 1 m s -1 rise may 
result in a hospital admission reduction of up to 42-45%.
ER  -