Data sets of asthma/other lung conditions in Asia/outside of US
February 19, 2021 8:23 AM   Subscribe

For my capstone master's project, I'm trying to do something with air pollution and asthma rates/deaths and I'd like to look at some countries outside of the US as well as inside for this, preferably in south, east and southeast Asia. Does anyone know where I can look? (I'll also happily take outside of Asia, it's just that's where I'm hoping to find data.)

The intention of my project is to see how non-infectious lung conditions did during the COVID lockdowns, given the drop in driving and coal/petroleum/biomass burning for power. If possible, I'd like to look at Seoul, Beijing, Bangalore, Delhi, or other very large cities that have been known to have pollution issues. (Also, I know people who are fluent in Chinese, Korean, Malayalam, and (some) Hindi, so I can get verification on any Google translations that I pull.)

I have found the CDC website with causes of death from 1999-2019 here, which is perfect for the US. I'm hoping to find something equivalent (deaths or hospitalizations/emergency room visits is ideal, but general cases work as well) for China, Korea or India, or any cities therein. I'll happily take Europe/Africa/South America (or Canada and Mexico) as well, I was just hoping for a larger city with pollution levels that were noticeably impacted by the COVID lockdowns and I know that there are cities in those countries with pretty dire pollution, at least at certain times (in the case of Seoul).
posted by Hactar to Science & Nature (3 answers total)
 
Response by poster: Also, I forgot to put this in the question, any sort of breakdown beyond by year is ideal. Ideally date, but at least month is kind of necessary for the project.
posted by Hactar at 8:27 AM on February 19, 2021


I don't know what level of data you will be able to access for this, but you could start by looking at some data collections from the WHO.
PAHO will be your source for information on the Americas.
There is a category for "Mortality from household and ambient air pollution" in the Southeast Asia WHO data source.
There is also the Non-communicable disease database.
The UN also has an environmental program focused on air quality which may have some data available.
You may get more current data from countries or regional health departments, for the specific cities or countries you are interested in. It helps if you can read the language of that country as they do not always publish reports in multiple languages.
posted by arachnidette at 11:58 AM on February 19, 2021 [1 favorite]


For city-level data you might want to check out the local health department sites for the places you’re interested in. Global advocacy groups for asthma may also have good data sources. I know UNICEF and WHO collect and publish national-level data for many common causes of death and illness in children, like pneumonia.

I’d also think that contacting a librarian or informationist from your school or program would be really helpful at tracking down accessible data sources.

The pandemic has really hampered data collection efforts so you may have some trouble finding 2019 or 2020 data.
posted by forkisbetter at 6:38 AM on February 20, 2021 [1 favorite]


« Older Good way to say Farewell in these times   |   I have zero need for a good scarf, let alone a bad... Newer »
This thread is closed to new comments.