Air pollution and mortality in population of the Czech Republic

This paper investigates the effects of air pollution represented by particulate matter concentration (PM10) on annual mortality and on annual hospital admission rate in 54 Czech districts and Prague. Two regression models for identifying the effects of long-term air pollution exposure on mortality and on hospital admissions were estimated using ordinary least squares method with cross-sectional data for 2011. Average PM10 concentration between 2004 and 2011 is used as the air pollution variable. The control variables are indicators of the district's socioeconomic status (serving as proxies for the population's health behavior) or indicators of healthcare accessibility. The model estimates indicate that air pollution is responsible for 6.5 % of all deaths and for 10 % of all hospital admissions in the observed districts. Another model was used to identify the association between annual mortality and air pollution in the concurrent and the previous year. The model was estimated using fixed effects method on panel data for 2004-11. However, the model failed to provide credible estimates, because the trend in mortality was not properly controlled for.