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Abstract

Objectives: Air pollution, especially particulate matter (PM2.5, PM10), is highly toxic and contributes to a range of diseases, resulting in premature morbidity and mortality. This study aimed to investigate the disease-specific mortality and disability rates attributable to air pollution in GCC countries from 1990 to 2021.
Methodology: This time trend longitudinal study was conducted in the Department of Physiology, College of Medicine, King Saud University, Riyadh, Saudi Arabia, from July 2024 to December 2024. This study investigated the death and disability-adjusted life years (DALYS) rates of respiratory diseases, cardiovascular diseases, diabetes mellitus and total cancers caused by air pollution in the GCC region: Bahrain, Kuwait, Oman, Saudi Arabia, Qatar, and the United Arab Emirates. The data were collected from the Institute for Health Metrics and Evaluation (IHME) based on the Global Burden of Disease 2021 dataset from 1990 to 2021.
Results: In GCC states, the highest rate of PM exposure in 2021 was in Qatar (56.95 per 100 people), whereas the lowest was in Oman (38.86 per 100 people). Qatar consistently achieved the highest decreases in death and DALY rates from 1990 to 2021. Among all the diseases, diabetes mellitus was the only one that presented an increase in deaths and DALYS in the GCC region from 1990 to 2021.
Conclusion: The rising trend in air pollutant exposure is attributable to death and DALY rates in GCC countries. GCC states are at risk due to air pollution and associated with high mortality and DALY rates for different diseases.