Table 1.

Relationships between hospitalizations and some of the explanatory indicators for COPD and overall hospitalizations

	Type of indicator	COPD hospitalizations		Overall hospitalizations
		Signi-ficance level	Type of relationship	Signi-ficance level	Type of relationship
Socio-economic indicators	Urban unit scale :	n.s	no significant relation	n.s	no significant relation
	Size (number of inhabitants)
	Urban unit scale :	0.001	Linear: privileged cities have lower hospitalization rates	n.s	no significant relation
	Socioeconomic (% unemployment,% of individuals with no diploma, bachelor diploma,% of non taxable households, etc.)
			Positive with unemployment, non taxable households (0.3<r<0.5)
			Negative with bachelor diploma (r=−0.5)
	Intra-urban scale	0.001	Linear positive: cities with concentration of privileged populations have higher hospitalization rates (0.3<r<0.44)	0.001	Linear positive: cities with concentration of privileged populations have higher rates (0.28<r<0.40)
	Residential intra-urban organization indicators (CV, Gini, Moran of unemployment,% of individuals with no diploma, bachelor diploma,% of non taxable households, etc.)
			Linear negative: cities with concentration of deprived populations have lower rates (−0.3<r<−0.48)
					Linear negative: cities with concentration of deprived populations have lower rates (r=−0.43)
	Regional scale	0.001	Linear positive: cities in deprived regions have higher hospitalization rates (0.33<r<0.47)	n.s	no significant relation
	Socioeconomic (% unemployment, etc.)
	Urban unit scale	n.s	no significant relation	n.s	no significant relation
	Access to health amenities
Physical indicators	Urban unit scale :	0.05	Linear negative with the daily mean temperature in January (r=−0.28)	0.05	no significant relation
	Climate parameters (temperature, humidity)
			Linear positive with the mean annual minimal relative humidity (r=0.34) No significant relation with other climate indicators
	Regional scale	n.s	no significant relation	0.007	Higher hospitalization rates in semi-continental climate ; lower rates in mountain climate
	Climate zones
	Urban unit scale :	0.05	Globally lower hospitalization rates for less polluted locations	n.s	no significant relation
	Air pollution (ambient levels of PM 10 , NO 2 )
			Linear positive for PM10 (0.28<r<0.30 )
			Non linear positive for NO2
	Intra-urban scale :	n.s	no significant relation	n.s	no significant relation
	Air pollution (intra-urban variations of PM 10 , NO 2 )
	Urban unit scale	n.s	no significant relation	n.s	no significant relation
	Pollen index