Exposure to air pollution can worsen patient outcomes from COVID-19

air pollution and covid 19

Study by researchers of Keck School of Medicine of USC and Kaiser Permanente Southern California finds link between exposure to airborne particulate matter and increased risk of serious coronavirus complications.

“Our research demonstrated that one-year average exposure to PM2.5 translated to a 20-30 percent increase in the risk of hospitalization, intensive respiratory support and ICU admissions from COVID-19. Exposure to NO2 for one month carried an increased risk of 12-18 percent,” said Zhanghua Chen, assistant professor of population and public health sciences at the Keck School of Medicine of USC and co-first author of the study. “We also saw that long-term PM2.5 exposure was associated with a higher risk of mortality from COVID-19.”

The study appears in the American Journal of Respiratory and Critical Care Medicine.

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