The Associations between Types of Ambient PM 2.5 and Under-Five and Maternal Mortality in Africa

Patrick Opiyo Owili, Wei-Hung Lien, Miriam Adoyo Muga and Tang-Huang Lin
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Patrick Opiyo Owili: International PhD Program in Environmental Science & Technology (UST), Institute of Environmental & Occupational Health, National Yang Ming University, Taipei City 112, Taiwan
Wei-Hung Lien: Center for Space and Remote Sensing Research, National Central University, Taoyuan City 320, Taiwan
Miriam Adoyo Muga: Institute of Community Health and Development, Great Lakes University of Kisumu, Kisumu 40100, Kenya
Tang-Huang Lin: Center for Space and Remote Sensing Research, National Central University, Taoyuan City 320, Taiwan

IJERPH, 2017, vol. 14, issue 4, 1-20

Abstract: Exploring the effects of different types of PM 2.5 is necessary to reduce associated deaths, especially in low- and middle-income countries (LMICs). Hence we determined types of ambient PM 2.5 before exploring their effects on under-five and maternal mortality in Africa. The spectral derivate of aerosol optical depth (AOD) from Moderate Resolution Imaging Spectroradiometer (MODIS) products from 2000 to 2015 were employed to determine the aerosol types before using Generalized Linear and Additive Mixed-Effect models with Poisson link function to explore the associations and penalized spline for dose-response relationships. Four types of PM 2.5 were identified in terms of mineral dust, anthropogenic pollutant, biomass burning and mixture aerosols. The results demonstrate that biomass PM 2.5 increased the rate of under-five mortality in Western and Central Africa, each by 2%, and maternal mortality in Central Africa by 19%. Anthropogenic PM 2.5 increased under-five and maternal deaths in Northern Africa by 5% and 10%, respectively, and maternal deaths by 4% in Eastern Africa. Dust PM 2.5 increased under-five deaths in Northern, Western, and Central Africa by 3%, 1%, and 10%, respectively. Mixture PM 2.5 only increased under-five deaths and maternal deaths in Western (incidence rate ratio = 1.01, p < 0.10) and Eastern Africa (incidence rate ratio = 1.06, p < 0.01), respectively. The findings indicate the types of ambient PM 2.5 are significantly associated with under-five and maternal mortality in Africa where the exposure level usually exceeds the World Health Organization’s (WHO) standards. Appropriate policy actions on protective and control measures are therefore suggested and should be developed and implemented accordingly.

Keywords: Keywords : ambient air pollution; types of particulate matter; under-five mortality; maternal mortality; Africa (search for similar items in EconPapers)
JEL-codes: I I1 I3 Q Q5 (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Date: 2017
References: View references in EconPapers View complete reference list from CitEc
Citations: View citations in EconPapers (3)

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Persistent link: https://EconPapers.repec.org/RePEc:gam:jijerp:v:14:y:2017:i:4:p:359-:d:94572

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