{"status":"ok","message-type":"work","message-version":"1.0.0","message":{"indexed":{"date-parts":[[2026,9,23]],"date-time":"2026-09-23T07:01:45Z","timestamp":1790146905975,"version":"4.0.1"},"reference-count":55,"publisher":"Frontiers Media SA","license":[{"start":{"date-parts":[[2026,9,23]],"date-time":"2026-09-23T00:00:00Z","timestamp":1790121600000},"content-version":"vor","delay-in-days":0,"URL":"https:\/\/creativecommons.org\/licenses\/by\/4.0\/"}],"content-domain":{"domain":["frontiersin.org"],"crossmark-restriction":true},"short-container-title":["Front. Public Health"],"abstract":"<jats:sec>\n                    <jats:title>Background<\/jats:title>\n                    <jats:p>Ambient air pollutants can directly act on the conjunctiva, triggering or exacerbating conjunctivitis. Nevertheless, evidence regarding the effects of common air pollutants on conjunctiva remains limited.<\/jats:p>\n                  <\/jats:sec>\n                  <jats:sec>\n                    <jats:title>Methods<\/jats:title>\n                    <jats:p>We collected 73,043 outpatient records of conjunctivitis visits to hospitals in Hefei from 2014 to 2023. A time-series study was adopted to investigate the short-term associations between five common air pollutants [i.e., aerodynamic diameter \u22642.5\u202f\u03bcm (PM\u2082.\u2085), particulate matter with an aerodynamic diameter \u226410\u202f\u03bcm (PM\u2081\u2080), ozone (O\u2083), nitrogen dioxide (NO\u2082), and sulfur dioxide (SO\u2082) and the risk of outpatient visits for conjunctivitis]. Furthermore, we explored the potential effect modification by gender, age, season, and the COVID-19 pandemic.<\/jats:p>\n                  <\/jats:sec>\n                  <jats:sec>\n                    <jats:title>Results<\/jats:title>\n                    <jats:p>Exposures to all five ambient air pollutants were positively associated with elevated daily outpatient visit risks for conjunctivitis, with the strongest single-day effects generally observed on the concurrent day of exposure (lag 0), while cumulative analyses indicated pollutant-specific short-term lag patterns. The magnitude of associations varied across pollutants; SO\u2082 showed the largest lag-0 effect estimate, followed by NO\u2082. Stratified analyses further revealed that season, gender, age, and study period modified the pollutant-conjunctivitis associations to varying degrees.<\/jats:p>\n                  <\/jats:sec>\n                  <jats:sec>\n                    <jats:title>Conclusion<\/jats:title>\n                    <jats:p>\n                      This study found that short-term exposure to PM\n                      <jats:sub>2.5<\/jats:sub>\n                      , PM\u2081\u2080, O\u2083, NO\u2082, and SO\u2082 was associated with increased outpatient visits for conjunctivitis, with evident subgroup heterogeneity. These findings may have implications for clinical practice and public health in the prevention of eye diseases against air pollution.\n                    <\/jats:p>\n                  <\/jats:sec>","DOI":"10.3389\/fpubh.2026.1926405","type":"journal-article","created":{"date-parts":[[2026,9,23]],"date-time":"2026-09-23T06:19:40Z","timestamp":1790144380000},"update-policy":"https:\/\/doi.org\/10.3389\/crossmark-policy","source":"Crossref","is-referenced-by-count":0,"title":["Ambient air pollutants and outpatient visits for conjunctivitis in Hefei, China: a time-series study of hospital-based data during 2014\u20132023"],"prefix":"10.3389","volume":"14","author":[{"given":"Xuan","family":"Zhang","sequence":"first","affiliation":[{"name":"Department of Ophthalmology, The First Affiliated Hospital of Anhui Medical University","place":["Hefei, China"]}],"role":[{"vocabulary":"crossref","role":"author"}]},{"given":"Yunyi","family":"Jia","sequence":"additional","affiliation":[{"name":"First Clinical Medical College, Anhui Medical University","place":["Hefei, China"]}],"role":[{"vocabulary":"crossref","role":"author"}]},{"given":"Di","family":"Tian","sequence":"additional","affiliation":[{"name":"Department of Organization, The First Affiliated Hospital of Anhui Medical University","place":["Hefei, Anhui, China"]},{"name":"School of Public Health, Anhui Medical University","place":["Hefei, Anhui, China"]}],"role":[{"vocabulary":"crossref","role":"author"}]},{"given":"Xiaojie","family":"Zou","sequence":"additional","affiliation":[{"name":"Department of Epidemiology and Biostatistics, School of Public Health, Anhui Medical University","place":["Hefei, China"]}],"role":[{"vocabulary":"crossref","role":"author"}]},{"given":"Deshen","family":"Mao","sequence":"additional","affiliation":[{"name":"Department of Ophthalmology, The First Affiliated Hospital of Anhui Medical University","place":["Hefei, China"]}],"role":[{"vocabulary":"crossref","role":"author"}]},{"given":"Fangyuan","family":"Zhang","sequence":"additional","affiliation":[{"name":"Department of Ophthalmology, The First Affiliated Hospital of Anhui Medical University","place":["Hefei, China"]}],"role":[{"vocabulary":"crossref","role":"author"}]},{"given":"Jian","family":"Cheng","sequence":"additional","affiliation":[{"name":"Department of Epidemiology and Biostatistics, School of Public Health, Anhui Medical University","place":["Hefei, China"]}],"role":[{"vocabulary":"crossref","role":"author"}]},{"given":"Zhengyu","family":"Gu","sequence":"additional","affiliation":[{"name":"Department of Ophthalmology, The First Affiliated Hospital of Anhui Medical University","place":["Hefei, China"]},{"name":"Huaibei People\u2019s Hospital, Huaibei, China, Huaibei Municipal Key Laboratory of Visual Health","place":["Huaibei, 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