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Meta-Analysis
. 2024 Sep 27:69:1607683.
doi: 10.3389/ijph.2024.1607683. eCollection 2024.

Long-Term Exposure to Particulate Matter and Mortality: An Update of the WHO Global Air Quality Guidelines Systematic Review and Meta-Analysis

Pablo Orellano  1 , Maria-Iosifina Kasdagli  2 , Román Pérez Velasco  3 , Evangelia Samoli  2
Affiliations
Meta-Analysis

Long-Term Exposure to Particulate Matter and Mortality: An Update of the WHO Global Air Quality Guidelines Systematic Review and Meta-Analysis

Pablo Orellano et al. Int J Public Health. .

Abstract

Objectives: For the development of the 2021 global air quality guidelines, the World Health Organization (WHO) commissioned a series of systematic reviews and meta-analyses to assess the association between exposure to air pollution and all-cause and cause-specific mortality. One of these reviews, which we aim to update, focused on the effects of long-term exposure to PM2.5 and PM10 on all-cause and cause-specific mortality.

Methods: The protocol for this study was registered in PROSPERO (CRD42023425327). We searched the PubMed and Embase databases for studies published between September 2018 and May 2023. Study-specific effects were pooled using random-effects models.

Results: We included 106 studies in the meta-analysis, 46 studies from the previous review and 60 from this update. All exposure-outcome pairs analysed showed positive and significant associations, except for PM10 and cerebrovascular mortality. The certainty of the evidence was rated as high for the majority of exposure-outcome pairs.

Conclusion: We included a large number of new cohorts, and provided new concentration-response functions that will inform WHO advice on the use of this information for air pollution health risk assessments.

Keywords: air pollution; meta-analysis; mortality; particulate matter; systematic review.

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Conflict of interest statement

The authors declare that they do not have any conflicts of interest.

Figures

FIGURE 1
FIGURE 1
Flowchart of studies selected for inclusion in the systematic review and meta-analysis (Global, 2023–2024).
FIGURE 2
FIGURE 2
Forest plot examining the association between PM2.5 and all-cause mortality (Global, 2023–2024).
See this image and copyright information in PMC

References

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