Association of PM 2.5 and its components with hospital admissions, length of hospital stay, and hospital costs due to type 2 diabetes in Shanghai

Abstract The short-term influence of particles with an aerodynamic diameter ≤ 2.5 µm (PM2.5) and its individual elements on hospital costs, the length of hospital stay (LOS), and hospital admissions caused by type 2 diabetes remains unclear. A generalized additive model (GAM) was utilized to assess the association with these indicators for every 10 µg/m3 rise in PM2.5 and its components. For every 10 µg/m3 rise in PM2.5 and its components, with a lag time of 0 days, there was a significant increase in daily hospital costs, LOS and hospital admissions for type 2 diabetes. The three indicators increased approximately linearly with organic matter (OM) concentration at all concentrations tested while they increased linearly with a specific concentration range for PM2.5 and other components concentrations. These findings suggested that short-term exposure to elevated levels of PM2.5 as well as its components increased the risk of hospital costs, LOS, and hospital admissions due to type 2 diabetes.