Effects of meteorological factors and air pollutants on ocular xerosis in Baise City of Guangxi Province

Objective To explore the effects of meteorological factors and air pollutants on xerophthalmia.

Methods Information of patients with eye xeremia in Outpatient Department of Baise People′s Hospital from 2018 to 2022 and meteorological data along with air pollutant data in Baise City during the same period were collected. The generalized additive mode (GAM) based on Poisson distribution was applied to analyze the correlations between meteorological factors, air pollutants and outpatient visits for xerophthalmia department. The bivariate response surface model was further used to qualitatively and quantitatively analyze the interaction between meteorological factors and air pollutants on the risk of xerophthalmia.

Results From 2018 to 2022, the number of average daily outpatient visits of xerophthalmiapatients in Baise City People′s Hospital was 1.0 person per day. Compared with the mean temperature of 23.8 ℃, high temperature (37.5 ℃) increased the number of outpatient visits of xerophthalmic patients by 1.255 (95%CI, 0.861 to 1.830) when delayed for 3 days; low temperature (7 ℃) at 0 d increased the number of outpatient visits for xerophthalmic by 1.215 (95%CI, 0.660 to 2.236). Compared with the mean wind speed of magnitude 1.8, high wind speed (magnitude 7) increased the number of outpatient visits forxerophthalmia by 2.297 (95%CI, 0.534 to 9.880) with a lag of 2 days. The interaction terms between high temperature and high concentration of O₃ or carbon monoxide (CO)were significant (P < 0.05).

Conclusion High temperature, low temperature and high wind speed can increase the number of patients with xerophthalmia in Baise city, and the effect of high concentration of O₃ and CO on the number of medical visits is enhanced at high temperature.