ArticleThe Laryngoscope2026
Causal Effect of Air Pollution on Outpatient Visits for Chronic Rhinitis.
Article in The Laryngoscope, 2026. The graph could read no effect estimate from its abstract, so it casts no vote on the map. Not yet cited in PubMed.
What it found
Each row is one number read from the abstract, on the scale the paper reported it, with its interval. Left of the dashed line favours the treatment, right favours the comparator. Under each row is the sentence it came from. New to these charts? A ten-minute tutorial.
The abstract states no effect estimate the extractor could read, or names no intervention and outcome on the map, so this paper lights no cell and moves no belief. It is still indexed, cited and linked below.
The trial behind it
Trials whose registry record cites this paper, or whose number appears in the abstract. A trial that started after this paper was published is citing it as background, not reporting it.
Neither the registry nor the abstract names a trial number. If this is a trial report, that itself is worth knowing.
Who cites it
0 citing papers in PubMed.
No citing paper in PubMed yet.
Corrections and comments
PubMed lists nothing against this paper. Absence here is not a guarantee, only a check that was made.
Authors and funding
6 authors.
Funding
No grant is acknowledged in the PubMed record.
Abstract
objectivesAlthough the association between air pollutants and chronic rhinitis has been extensively investigated, causal inference is lacking. We aimed to investigate the causal relationship between air quality index (AQI) and outpatient visits for chronic rhinitis using instrumental variable (IV) analysis, employing thermal inversion.
methodsWe used National Health Insurance Service data collected between January 1, 2014, and December 31, 2017, to determine the short-term causal relationship between air pollution and outpatient visits due to chronic rhinitis. A two-stage generalized method-of-moments Poisson regression model was employed to estimate the causal effects. Stratified analyses by age group and robustness tests for IV with negative controls were conducted.
resultsA total of 81,210,447 outpatient visits for chronic rhinitis were analyzed. IV analysis demonstrated significant positive associations between AQI and outpatient visits on lag days 0, 3, 5, and 6, with the strongest effect observed at Lag 0 (relative risk [RR] 1.078, 95% confidence interval [CI] 1.045-1.113). Stratified analysis revealed that individuals aged 10-19 years were the most vulnerable, showing statistically significant relative risks across all lag days (RR: 1.039-1.161). Analyses using negative control outcomes and exposures supported the validity of the proposed instrumental variable approach, suggesting a robust causal effect of AQI on outpatient visits for chronic rhinitis.
conclusionsWe identified a causal relationship between increased air pollution and outpatient visits for chronic rhinitis. Unlike a simple association potentially confounded by various factors, our analysis provides robust evidence of the causal impact of air pollution on disease burden. LEVEL OF EVIDENCE: 3:
Indexed as
Identifiers
What OpenQuestion holds
Registered trials
Read under generation 80e0d062 · epoch 390. Bibliography from PubMed, PubMed Central and OpenAlex; grants from NIH RePORTER; trial links from ClinicalTrials.gov; estimates, votes and beliefs from the OpenQuestion graph.