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In Kuwait, however, the past decade has brought new, detailed health and environmental exposure data that now make such assessments possible.<\/jats:p>\n                  <\/jats:sec>\n                  <jats:sec>\n                    <jats:title>Objective<\/jats:title>\n                    <jats:p>To present an epidemiological basis in support for a strict air quality policy in Kuwait.<\/jats:p>\n                  <\/jats:sec>\n                  <jats:sec>\n                    <jats:title>Methods<\/jats:title>\n                    <jats:p>\n                      We collected all cardiopulmonary hospital admissions from six public hospitals in the country from 2010 to 2018. We then matched cases with daily population-weighted PM\n                      <jats:sub>2.5<\/jats:sub>\n                      exposure estimated at 1\u00a0km\u00b2 resolution. For each hospital service region, we fitted generalized additive models with a negative binomial distribution that estimated the relative risk of admission per 10\u00a0\u00b5g\/m\u00b3 increase in PM\n                      <jats:sub>2.5<\/jats:sub>\n                      . We then calculated attributable admissions under three hypothetical policy scenarios: (1) maintaining the status quo (\u2018do nothing\u2019), (2) reducing PM\n                      <jats:sub>2.5<\/jats:sub>\n                      concentrations by 10\u00a0\u00b5g\/m\u00b3, and (3) reducing by 20\u00a0\u00b5g\/m\u00b3.\n                    <\/jats:p>\n                  <\/jats:sec>\n                  <jats:sec>\n                    <jats:title>Results<\/jats:title>\n                    <jats:p>\n                      There was a total of 380,862 cardiopulmonary hospital admissions during the study period. Every 10\u00a0\u00b5g\/m\u00b3 increase in PM\n                      <jats:sub>2.5<\/jats:sub>\n                      was associated with a 1% (95%CI: 0.6%-1.5%) increase in cardiopulmonary admission. Under the status quo, 3.4\u20133.9% of cases can be attributed to PM\n                      <jats:sub>2.5<\/jats:sub>\n                      , totaling 1,536 (95%CI: 956-2,108) excess admissions\/year. A 10\u00a0\u00b5g\/m\u00b3 reduction could prevent up to 403 (95%CI: 252\u2013551) admissions\/year; a 20\u00a0\u00b5g\/m\u00b3 reduction up to 810 (95%CI: 505-1,109) admissions\/year.\n                    <\/jats:p>\n                  <\/jats:sec>\n                  <jats:sec>\n                    <jats:title>Conclusion<\/jats:title>\n                    <jats:p>Reducing air pollution, even modestly, offers measurable public health benefits. Data from Kuwait provide a model for evidence-based policymaking and can help guide other GCC countries with similar pollution profiles toward adopting stricter air quality standards aligned with WHO interim targets.<\/jats:p>\n                  <\/jats:sec>","DOI":"10.1007\/s44197-026-00609-9","type":"journal-article","created":{"date-parts":[[2026,7,9]],"date-time":"2026-07-09T18:55:12Z","timestamp":1783623312000},"update-policy":"https:\/\/doi.org\/10.1007\/springer_crossmark_policy","source":"Crossref","is-referenced-by-count":0,"title":["A Policy Support Analysis of Air Pollution Epidemiology and Hospital Admissions in Kuwait"],"prefix":"10.1007","volume":"16","author":[{"ORCID":"https:\/\/orcid.org\/0000-0003-0804-7180","authenticated-orcid":false,"given":"Yazan","family":"Alwadi","sequence":"first","affiliation":[],"role":[{"vocabulary":"crossref","role":"author"}]},{"given":"Shereef S.","family":"Al-Khayat","sequence":"additional","affiliation":[],"role":[{"vocabulary":"crossref","role":"author"}]},{"given":"Maryam A.","family":"Al-Hunaidi","sequence":"additional","affiliation":[],"role":[{"vocabulary":"crossref","role":"author"}]},{"given":"Hanan S.","family":"Mallallah","sequence":"additional","affiliation":[],"role":[{"vocabulary":"crossref","role":"author"}]},{"given":"Nawaf S.","family":"Alhajeri","sequence":"additional","affiliation":[],"role":[{"vocabulary":"crossref","role":"author"}]},{"given":"Jing","family":"Li","sequence":"additional","affiliation":[],"role":[{"vocabulary":"crossref","role":"author"}]},{"given":"Ali","family":"Al-Hemoud","sequence":"additional","affiliation":[],"role":[{"vocabulary":"crossref","role":"author"}]},{"given":"Petros","family":"Koutrakis","sequence":"additional","affiliation":[],"role":[{"vocabulary":"crossref","role":"author"}]},{"given":"Barrak","family":"Alahmad","sequence":"additional","affiliation":[],"role":[{"vocabulary":"crossref","role":"author"}]}],"member":"297","published-online":{"date-parts":[[2026,7,9]]},"reference":[{"key":"609_CR1","doi-asserted-by":"publisher","first-page":"705","DOI":"10.1056\/NEJMoa1817364","volume":"381","author":"C Liu","year":"2019","unstructured":"Liu C, Chen R, Sera F, Vicedo-Cabrera AM, Guo Y, Tong S, et al. 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