Assessing the health impacts of ambient air pollution is essential for evaluating air-quality management policies. Using nationwide data from 2007 to 2023, this study analyzed long-term trends in six major air pollutants (SO2, NO2, O3, CO, PM10, and PM2.5) and examined the responsiveness of two health indicator categories: disease prevalence (asthma, rhinitis, atopy, and stroke) and hospitalization rates for chronic obstructive pulmonary disease (COPD) and asthma. Although concentrations of PM10, PM2.5, SO2, and CO declined substantially during the study period, prevalence indicators showed no corresponding improvements and instead exhibited weak or inconsistent correlations with air pollutants (e.g., PM10-asthma: r = –0.696; PM10-stroke: r = –0.220), reflecting their limited sensitivity to environmental changes. In contrast, hospitalization rates demonstrated strong and consistent associations with air pollution, particularly particulate matter and NO2. Meanwhile, PM2.5 showed the highest correlations with COPD (r = 0.973) and asthma hospitalizations (r = 0.988), and regression analyses indicated steeper slopes for PM2.5 than for PM10. This suggests a greater relative impact of fine particles on acute disease exacerbation. Principal component analysis further confirmed that hospitalization indicators clustered closely with pollutant-related components, whereas prevalence indicators were structurally independent. Overall, hospitalization rates provide a more objective and responsive measure for evaluating the health impacts of air-quality improvements in South Korea, while prevalence indicators are less suitable for assessing environmental policy outcomes.

Abstract
1. 서 론
2. 재료 및 방법
    2.1 분석 자료
    2.2 분석방법
3. 결과 및 고찰
    3.1 대기오염물질의 연도별 변화 추세
    3.2 유병률 변화와 대기오염물질과의 관계
    3.3 입원률과 대기오염물질의 관계
    3.4 주성분분석(PCA)에 기반한 다변량 구조 해석
    3.5 상관관계 분석
    3.6 종합 고찰
4. 결 론
감사의 글
References
<저자정보>

• 김영구(안양대학교 환경에너지공학과) | Youngkoo Kim (Department of Environmental Engineering, Anyang University)
• 백정덕(안양대학교 환경에너지공학과) | JeongDeok Beak (Department of Environmental Engineering, Anyang University)
• 주흥수(안양대학교 환경에너지공학과) | HungSoo Joo (Department of Environmental Engineering, Anyang University) Corresponding author