Reports from Midatlantic Permanente Research Institute Add New Data to Findings in Climate Change (Pollen Exposure and Associated Healthcare Utilization: a Population-based Study Using Health Maintenance Organization Data In the Washington, Dc, …): Climate Change

2021 NOV 05 (NewsRx) -- By a News Reporter-Staff News Editor at Insurance Daily News -- Current study results on Climate Change have been published. According to news reporting originating from Rockville, Maryland, by NewsRx correspondents, research stated, “Most studies of the healthcare utilization impact of pollen exposure have focused on emergency department visits or hospital admissions. However, other frequent but lower cost services-phone calls and e-mails to providers and office visitsmay also be affected.”

Funders for this research include NIH National Center for Advancing Translational Sciences (NCATS), Emory University to Georgia State University School of Public Health.

Our news editors obtained a quote from the research from Midatlantic Permanente Research Institute, “The objective of our study was to estimate the impact of tree and grass pollen exposures on respiratory-related healthcare utilization across a range of medical services, including calls and e-mails to providers, nonurgent face-to-face visits, urgent and emergent care visits, and hospitalizations. We conducted a retrospective observational study of daily tree and grass pollen counts linked to electronic health records of Kaiser Permanente beneficiaries in the metropolitan Washington, DC, area for 2013-2014. The proportion of Kaiser Permanente beneficiaries with respiratory-related healthcare utilization was significantly greater (for P< 0.05) given a 1 standard deviation increase in same-day pollen exposure. For tree pollen, a 1 standard deviation increase in same-day pollen exposure was associated with relative increases in utilization ranging from 1.77% (95% confidence interval [CI], 0.07-4.17%) for urgent and emergent care visits to 12.84% (95% CI, 11.02-14.65%) for provider calls/e-mails. For grass pollen exposure, a 1 standard deviation increase in same-day pollen exposure was associated with relative increases in utilization ranging from 1.42% (95% CI, 0.39-2.46) for provider face-to-face visits to 11.09% (95% CI, 9.26-12.92) for provider calls/e-mails. Increased pollen exposure was associated with increases in healthcare utilization across a range of services, with relatively higher increases in provider calls/e-mails and lower increases in emergent or acute care.”

According to the news editors, the research concluded: “If climate change increases intensity and geographic scope of pollen exposure as predicted and if this study’s estimates of association of peak pollen exposure on healthcare utilization are generalizable, then the impact of climate change on healthcare utilization may be significant.”

This research has been peer-reviewed.

For more information on this research see: Pollen Exposure and Associated Healthcare Utilization: a Population-based Study Using Health Maintenance Organization Data In the Washington, Dc, Area. Annals of the American Thoracic Society, 2021;18(10):1642-1649. Annals of the American Thoracic Society can be contacted at: Amer Thoracic Soc, 25 Broadway, 18 Fl, New York, NY 10004, USA.

The news editors report that additional information may be obtained by contacting Douglas W. Roblin, Kaiser Permanente, Midatlantic Permanente Research Institute, Rockville, MD 20852, United States. Additional authors for this research include Jordan W. Jones and Christina H. Fuller.

The direct object identifier (DOI) for that additional information is: https://doi.org/10.1513/AnnalsATS.202008-976OC. This DOI is a link to an online electronic document that is either free or for purchase, and can be your direct source for a journal article and its citation.

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