Asthma, Acute Bronchitis, and Dust in El Paso County, Texas

Abstract:

Dust events are a common natural phenomenon for the residents of El Paso, Texas. Strong winds in this area have an annual seasonality, which translates to an equally seasonal distribution of dust events. Past studies have explored the health effects of dust on respiratory health problems (e.g., asthma and acute bronchitis hospitalizations) from 2000 to 2003 and found that hospitalizations similarly correspond to the same seasonal pattern (Grineski et al. 2011). Additionally, previous efforts included understanding how socio-demographic factors such as age, gender, and insurance status groups modified the induced health effects. This study extends their efforts by examining the same five insurance status groups (Medicare, Medicaid, private, other public, and no insurance) and their associated asthma and acute bronchitis hospitalizations from 2011 to 2013, a period of extreme drought and increased dust. Time-series Pearson’s correlation and two-tailed t tests were used between multiple meteorological conditions and total number of hospital cases at the yearly quarterly scale resulting in average wind speed (r-value of 0.564 with p<0.001) being selected as the representative variable for dust activity. The average wind speed time series was then individually correlated to each insurance status group’s hospitalization cases. Results align with past studies indicating a positive and significant correlation between increased dust activity and overall total number of respiratory hospitalizations. Positive and significant bivariate correlations between these variables were also observed among three of the five insurance status groups: Medicaid (r-value 0.39 with p<0.001), private (r-value 0.46 with p<0.001), and no insurance (r-value 0.36 with p<0.001). General trends between dust events and hospitalizations can be seen to span the entire insurance status spectrum placing most El Paso residents under dust related health risks. Since insurance status can be used as a proxy for socioeconomic status (SES), our statistical results suggest higher risks for lower SES residents lacking health insurance and financial resources to adequately cope with the county-wide respiratory health issues.