Abstract
Background: Exposure to traffic-related pollutants such as nitrogen oxide, exhaust and coarse particles has been associated with cardiovascular and respiratory diseases. Living close to major road could cause many health problems such as asthma, allergic sensitization, wheezing, rhinitis etc. Number of studies has shown that many people in different Europe cities live within 250 m buffer zone with more than 10,000 vehicles per day. With GIS systems we have opportunities to study the associations between environmental exposure and disease symptoms using spatial linking of different types of data. Aim: Current study aimed to determine if living near a busy street increases the odds of heart diseases and respiratory complaints in Tartu Respiratory Health in Northern Europe (RHINE) cohort. Methods: As part of RHINE study, a questionnaire was sent in 2000/2001 Tartu RHINE cohort to 2460 respondents (69% response rate). Home addresses were geocoded and traffic data where obtained based on annually conducted traffic counts in Tartu. The distance to busy road section from respondents home were found using ArcGIS. The associations between proximity to busy street and self-reported heart diseases and respiratory symptoms were found using an adjusted logistic regression model. Results: Appeared that living closer than 150 m from busy street (>10,000 vehicles per day) has significant odds 1.63 (95% CI = 1.05–2.54) of having cardiac diseases. It`s even higher 1.81 (95% CI = 1.01–3.24) if living closer than 75 meters. Also we found high odds 1.51 (95% CI = 1.00–2.27) of having shortness in breath if living closer than 150 m with >8,000 vehicles per day (around 20.0 % of respondents lived within 150 m zone with traffic >8,000 per day). However, we did not see significant relationship with other studied respiratory symptoms such as wheezing, cough, chronic bronchitis, rhinitis, chest tightness and asthma. Conclusions: The study showed that traffic-related air pollution has significant effect of causing heart diseases and shortness of breath.
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