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Source-specific contributions of particulate matter to asthma-related pediatric emergency department utilization

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Abstract

Ambient particulate matter smaller than 2.5 μm (PM2.5) is associated with different chronic diseases. It is crucial to identify the sources of ambient particulate matter to reduce the impact on health. Still, only a few studies have been linked with specific ambient particulate matter sources. In this study, we estimated the contributions of sources of PM2.5 and examined their association with daily asthma hospital utilization in Cincinnati, Ohio, USA. We used a model-based clustering method to group days with similar source-specific contributions into six distinct clusters. Specifically, elevated PM2.5 concentrations occurring on days characterized by low coal combustion contributions showed a significantly reduced risk of hospital utilization for asthma (rate ratio: 0.86, 95% CI: [0.77, 0.95]) compared to other clusters. Reducing coal combustion contribution to PM2.5 levels could be an effective intervention for lowering asthma-related hospital utilization.

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Author information

Authors and Affiliations

  1. Division of Biostatistics and Epidemiology, Cincinnati Children’s Hospital Medical Center, 3333 Burnet Ave, Cincinnati, OH, 45229, USA

    Mohammad Alfrad Nobel Bhuiyan & Cole Brokamp

  2. Department of Environmental Health, Division of Biostatistics, University of Cincinnati, Cincinnati, OH, 45267, USA

    Mohammad Alfrad Nobel Bhuiyan & Patrick Ryan

  3. Department of Pediatrics, University of Cincinnati, Cincinnati, OH, 45267, USA

    Patrick Ryan & Cole Brokamp

  4. Department of Chemical and Environmental Engineering, College of Engineering and Applied Sciences, University of Cincinnati, Cincinnati, OH, 45267, USA

    Farzan Oroumyeh, Yajna Jathan, Madhumitaa Roy & Siv Balachandran

  5. Department of Biostatistics, Medpace, Inc., 5375 Medpace Way, Cincinnati, OH, 45227, USA

    Mohammad Alfrad Nobel Bhuiyan

Authors
  1. Mohammad Alfrad Nobel Bhuiyan
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  2. Patrick Ryan
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  4. Yajna Jathan
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  7. Cole Brokamp
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Contributions

MANB, SB, PR, CB: conceptualization, methodology, formal analysis, investigation, and writing. FO, YJ, MR: extracted source apportionment data.

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Correspondence to Mohammad Alfrad Nobel Bhuiyan.

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The authors report no conflicts of interest. The authors alone are responsible for the content and writing of the paper.

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Bhuiyan, M.A.N., Ryan, P., Oroumyeh, F. et al. Source-specific contributions of particulate matter to asthma-related pediatric emergency department utilization. Health Inf Sci Syst 9, 12 (2021). https://doi.org/10.1007/s13755-021-00141-z

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