95% of researchers rate our articles as excellent or good
Learn more about the work of our research integrity team to safeguard the quality of each article we publish.
Find out more
ORIGINAL RESEARCH article
Front. Public Health
Sec. Infectious Diseases: Epidemiology and Prevention
Volume 13 - 2025 | doi: 10.3389/fpubh.2025.1555430
This article is part of the Research Topic Advances in Meteorology Numerical Modeling Using Remote Sensing Observations and Artificial Intelligence Techniques View all 4 articles
Exploration of the Impact of Air Pollutants on the Influenza Epidemic After the Emergence of COVID-19: Based on Jiangsu Province, China (2020-2024)
Provisionally accepted
Xin Jiang 1 Yi Yin 1
Qigang Dai 2
Shuhan Tang 1 Jianli Hu 2
Chang-jun Bao 2 Haitao Yang 2
Zhihang Peng 1*- 1 School of Public Health, Nanjing Medical University, Nanjing, China
- 2 Jiangsu Provincial Center for Disease Control And Prevention, Nanjing, Jiangsu Province, China
Background: Non-pharmaceutical interventions (NPIs) during the COVID-19 pandemic altered influenza transmission patterns, yet the age-specific effects of air pollutants on influenza dynamics remain unclear. Methods: Utilizing influenza surveillance data of Jiangsu Province from 2020 to 2024, we integrated generalized additive quasi-Poisson regression model and distributed lag non-linear models (DLNM) to quantify lagged effects and exposure-response relationships between air pollutants (NO2 , SO2 , PM2.5) and influenza risk across young, middle-aged and elderly groups. Meteorological factors, including temperature and humidity, as well as the implementation stages of NPIs, were controlled in the model to isolate the impact of pollutants on influenza transmission.Results: The NO2 and SO2 both showed significant positive effects in all age groups.The effect of NO2 is most significant in the young group (RR=5.02, 95 % CI: 4.69-5.37), while SO2 exhibited the most pronounced effects in middle-aged and elderly groups (RR=4.22, RR=8.31, respectively). PM2.5 elevated risks in young (RR=1.99, 95% CI: 1.87-2.12) and elderly (RR = 1.45, 95% CI: 1.07-1.94) groups. Interactions between meteorological factors (temperature, humidity) and pollutants were statistically insignificant.Conclusions: Air pollutant impacts on influenza transmission are age-dependent: NO2 dominates in younger populations, whereas SO2 disproportionately affects older adults. These findings highlight age-related vulnerability to air pollution and the need for targeted public health strategies for different population subgroups.
Keywords: influenza, Air Pollutants, age-specific transmissibility, DLNM, COVID-19
Received: 04 Jan 2025; Accepted: 17 Mar 2025.
Copyright: © 2025 Jiang, Yin, Dai, Tang, Hu, Bao, Yang and Peng. This is an open-access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License (CC BY). The use, distribution or reproduction in other forums is permitted, provided the original author(s) or licensor are credited and that the original publication in this journal is cited, in accordance with accepted academic practice. No use, distribution or reproduction is permitted which does not comply with these terms.
* Correspondence:
Zhihang Peng, School of Public Health, Nanjing Medical University, Nanjing, China
Disclaimer: All claims expressed in this article are solely those of the authors and do not necessarily represent those of their affiliated organizations, or those of the publisher, the editors and the reviewers. Any product that may be evaluated in this article or claim that may be made by its manufacturer is not guaranteed or endorsed by the publisher.