미세먼지가 울산지역 초등학생의 폐기능에 미치는 영향

Abstract

To evaluate the effect of air pollution on respiratory health in children, We conducted a longitudinal study in which children were asked to record their daily levels of Peak Expiratory Flow Rate(PEFR) using potable peak flow meter(mini-Wright) for 4 weeks. The relationship between daily PEFR and ambient air particle levels was analyzed using a mixed linear regression models including gender, age in year, weight, the presence of respiratory symptoms, and relative humidity as an extraneous variable. The daily mean concentrations of <TEX>$PM_{10}$</TEX> and <TEX>$PM_{2.5}$</TEX> over the study period were <TEX>$64.9{\mu}g/m^3$</TEX> and <TEX>$46.1{\mu}g/m^3$</TEX>, respectively. The range of daily measured PEFR in this study was <TEX>$182{\sim}481\;l/min$</TEX>. Daily mean PEFR was regressed with the 24-hour average <TEX>$PM_{10}(or\;PM_{2.5})$</TEX> levels, weather information such as air temperature and relative humidity, and individual characteristics including sex, weight, and respiratory symptoms. The analysis showed that the increase of air particle concentrations was negatively associated with the variability in PEFR. We estimated that the IQR increment of <TEX>$PM_{10}$</TEX> or <TEX>$PM_{2.5}$</TEX> were associated with 1.5 l/min (95% Confidence intervals -3.1, 0.1) and 0.8 l/min(95% CI -1.8, 0.1) decline in PEFR. Even though this study showed negative findings on the relationship between respiratory function and air particles, it was worth noting that the findings must be interpreted cautiously because exposure measurement based on monitoring of ambient air likely resulted in misclassification of true exposure levels and this was the first Korean study that <TEX>$PM_{2.5}$</TEX> measurement was applied as an index of air quality.