Lagged Influence of Fine Particulate Matter and Geographic Disparities on Clinic Visits for Children's Asthma in Taiwan.

Lung-Chang Chien,Hwa-Lung Yu,Yu-An Chen

doi:10.3390/ijerph15040829

Abstract

Recent studies have revealed the influence of fine particulate matter (PM2.5) on increased medication use, hospital admission, and emergency room visits for asthma attack in children, but the lagged influence of PM2.5 on children’s asthma and geographic disparities of children’s asthma have rarely been discussed simultaneously. This study investigated the documented diagnosis of children’s asthma in clinic visits for children aged less than 15 years old that were associated with PM2.5 in two counties located in west-central Taiwan during 2005–2010. The result shows that PM2.5 had a significant lagged effect on children’s asthma for up to 6 days. A significantly higher relative risk for children’s asthma was more likely to happen at 2-day lag compared to the present day when PM2.5 increased from 36.17 μg/m3 to 81.26 μg/m3. Considering all lagged effects, the highest relative risk for children’s asthma was 1.08 (95% CI = 1.05, 1.11) as PM2.5 increased as high as 64.66 μg/m3. In addition, geographic disparities of children’s asthma were significant, and 47.83% of areas were identified to have children vulnerable to asthma. To sum up, our findings can serve as a valuable reference for the implementation of an early warning to governmental agencies about a susceptible population of children.

Highlights

Asthma is a common chronic disease in childhood and has become an increasing problem in the last few decades because numerous studies have revealed an increasing trend of asthma prevalence in both developed and developing countries [1,2,3,4,5,6,7,8]
The literature has proven that air pollution is a significant factor of asthma exacerbations, especially in susceptible populations who may be at risk for exacerbation of
The mean daily average of PM2.5 was 37.22 μg/m3 (SD = 18.87) in Changhua County and 37.26 μg/m3 (SD = 19.38) in Yunlin County, and both were higher than the World Health Organization (WHO)

Summary

Introduction

Asthma is a common chronic disease in childhood and has become an increasing problem in the last few decades because numerous studies have revealed an increasing trend of asthma prevalence in both developed and developing countries [1,2,3,4,5,6,7,8]. In Taiwan, children’s asthma is a major health issue, and evidence has shown that the prevalence of children’s asthma has increased dramatically over the last 40 years [9,10]. Many industrial factories in Taiwan, especially in west-central Taiwan, play an important role in the process of economic development, but they contribute to various kinds of pollutants to the ambient air, which may trigger the increase of asthma risk [17]. The issue of the association between air pollutants and asthma has been extensively discussed. The literature has proven that air pollution is a significant factor of asthma exacerbations, especially in susceptible populations who may be at risk for exacerbation of

Methods

Results

Discussion

Conclusion