Urgency consultations for respiratory diseases in children 5-14 years old and their association with environmental factors in the town of Calama, Chile

Abstract

The city of Calama (altitude 2,400 m), Chile, is located in the Atacama desert, and its geographical proximity to the copper mining industry exposes it to high levels of pollution. The respiratory emergency consultations (cRESP), of the age group of 5-14 years between 12/30/2018 and 06/07/2019, of the Primary Health Care establishments and the Emergency Service of the Calama Hospital, of the town of Calama, were analyzed. The data were obtained from the Statistics of Urgent Care, Ministry of Health. The meteorological data of temperature and humidity (Tmax, Tmin; Hmax, Hmin) and those of environmental pollutants such as carbon monoxide (CO), nitrous oxide (NOx), nitrous dioxide (NO2), sulfur dioxide (SO2), PM10 and PM2.5 were obtained from the Air Quality Monitoring Station located in Calama Centro. To analyze the relationship between cRESP with environmental factors, a semi-parametric generalized additive model with Poisson distribution was constructed.