The Invisible Killer: Could Differentials in Geographical Mortality be Partially Explained by Indoor Pollution?

Patrick Deboosere, Vrije Universiteit Brussel
Lise Bevernaegie, Vrije Universiteit Brussel

Air pollution remains the largest environmental health risk in Europe. Several studies on mortality related to air pollution have recently been published. But few address the issue of indoor pollution. We studied the effect of heating on respiratory and cardiovascular mortality and the impact on geographical patterns of mortality. We used the census population of 1991, linked to an individual mortality follow-up from 2001 till 2021. Households have been classified in four categories according to the type of heating and fuel in the 1991 census: central heating, wood burning, coal stoves and all other types of heating. Starting by the 30 years old we assume that most have been exposed during at least 30 years to the declared heating type before 1991. Using a coal stove results in the highest relative mortality risk respectively 48% and 85% higher than the reference group (central heating) for ischemic heart disease and for lower chronic respiratory disease. Mapping the results on district level we observe an important impact of heating type on the geographical patterns of cause specific mortality after control for socio-economic status.

Keywords: Census data, Linked data sets , Inequality, Disadvantage and Discrimination, Spatial Demography

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