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EXAMINING THE EFFECTS OF AIR POLLUTION ON HEALTH IN KAMPALA CITY, UGANDA
Air quality in Kampala city has deteriorated significantly during the past two decades and this has been attributed to the fast-pace of economic development and poor infrastructural development with a rapidly increasing health. The study main objective was to assess the effect of air pollution on health in Kampala City in Uganda. The datasets used in this study included concentration levels obtained from Air Quality Monitoring at US. Embassy Kampala, Uganda (www.airnow.gov), and Airqo (www.airqo.net) from College of Computing and Information Sciences, Makerere University and data on respiratory concerns and other health effects around Kampala city was obtained from ministry of health from the department of public health and environment (KCCA) which acts as data custodian for all the divisions that make up Kampala city. The hourly characteristics of concentration levels of PM2.5 within Kampala city depicted that the high coefficients of variation are at US-Embassy, Kireka, Bunamwaya and Makerere (80.8%, 100.9%, 70.8% and 69.8%) and low coefficient of variation at Bweyogerere (49.5%). Significant spatial variations in concentration levels of PM2.5 were observed at US-Embassy, Kireka, Bunamwaya and Bweyogerere as compared to concentration levels of PM2.5 at Makerere air quality measuring point. Time series results indicated increase in hourly concentration levels of PM2.5 at Bunamwaya and Makerere while decreases are observed at Bweyogerere, US-Embassy and Kireka air quality measuring points. Mann Kendall results depicted Makerere and Bunamwaya with positive trends (0.004 and 0.009) that are statistically significant whereas US-Embassy, Kireka and Bweyogerere have negative trends (-0.015,-0.011 and -0.005) though they are statistically significant at critical value (0.05). Results from the health cases analysis indicate that the highest number of respiratory cases being recorded at Kampala Central Division Health center (30.3%) and the least being recorded at Mulago National Referral Hospital Complex with (2.3%). Furthermore, the biggest percentage of the health effects associated with concentration levels of PM2.5 on health goes to Cough or Cold (82.3%) and the least observed under lung cancer (0.03%). Therefore resulted in the rejection of the null hypothesis (H0) and that there are significant variations in the concentration levels of PM2.5 in Kampala City and these results will be used in understanding the effects of air pollution on health in Kampala City.
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