Lung Function Growth in Children with Long-Term Exposure to Air Pollutants in Mexico City

Abstract

P-056 Introduction: Short-term exposure to air pollutants has been associated with acute reversible lung function decrements; however, long-term exposure has not been well established. We evaluated the association between long-term exposure to air pollutants and lung function growth in children. Methods: We studied a dynamic cohort of 3,181 children ages 8 to 14 living in Mexico City from April 1996, through May 2002. In 1996, this children attended 39 randomly selected elementary schools located near 10 air quality monitors and were visited every six months over 6 years. Statistical analyses were performed using general linear mixed models. Results: Multi-pollutant models shows a 10 ppb increment in mean nitrogen dioxide (NO2) concentration, was associated with a year percentage of predicted FVC deficit of 0.4% (95% CI: 0.6–0.2) and a year percentage of predicted FEV1 deficit of 0.26% (95% CI: 0.45–0.06) a 10 μm increment in mean particle matter <10 μm (PM10) was associated with a deficit of predicted FVC deficit of 0.3% (95% CI: 0.36–0.2), and percentage of predicted FEV1 deficit of 0.3% (95% CI: 0.37–0.2) for girls; and deficits of 0.55% (95% CI: 0.7–0.4), 0.2% (95% CI: 0.4–0.04), 0.22% (95% CI: 0.28–0.15), and 0.25% (95% CI: 0.3–0.17) respectively for boys. Discussion and Conclusions: We conclude that long-term exposure to NO2, and PM10 were associated to a deficit in the percentage of predicted FVC and FEV1 growth among school children residing in Mexico City.