Association between long-term exposure to air pollutants and cardiopulmonary mortality rates in South Korea

BMC Public Health

Table 2 Significant associations between mortality rates and air pollutant concentrations nationwide and in capital, non-capital, urban, and rural areas

Ischemic heart disease mortality rate
Air pollutant	Nationwide	Capital	Non-capital	Urban	Rural
CO				–
SO₂	+	+	+	+	+
NO₂			+
O₃				+
PM₁₀
Cerebrovascular disease mortality rate
Air pollutant	Nationwide	Capital	Non-capital	Urban	Rural
CO					+
SO₂	+	+	+	+
NO₂		–	+
O₃			–
PM₁₀	+		+		+
Pneumonia mortality rate
Air pollutant	Nationwide	Capital	Non-capital	Urban	Rural
CO
SO₂	–
NO₂	–	–		–
O₃	+			+
PM₁₀	–			–
Chronic Lower Respiratory Disease mortality rate
Air pollutant	Nationwide	Capital	Non-capital	Urban	Rural
CO	–		–	–
SO₂					+
NO₂	–	–	–	–	+
O₃	+	+		+
PM₁₀	–

“+” denotes a positive association, which means increased air pollutant concentrations are associated with higher mortality rates in the study districts
“–” denotes a negative association, which that means the opposite of “+”
Blank denotes null associations
The significance of the associations was determined using 95% confidence intervals

ISSN: 1471-2458