Abstract
Rapid social development in China has resulted in severe air pollution and adverse impacts on people’s health. Although studies have been conducted on the relationship between exposure to air pollutants and asthma exacerbation, most studies were performed in relatively heavily polluted areas, while little is known about the effect of air pollutants in less polluted areas. We assessed the effects of air pollutants on the risk of asthma-related outpatient and emergency visits of infants and children aged from 0 to 13 years during 2018 to 2020 in Fuzhou city, southeast China. Data of six air pollutants: sulfur dioxide (SO2), nitrogen dioxides (NO2), carbon monoxide (CO), daily maximum 8-h average ozone (O3-8 h), particulate matter with an aerodynamic diameter ≤ 10 μm (PM10), and particulate matter with an aerodynamic diameter ≤ 2.5 μm (PM2.5), were obtained from the Environmental Protection Administration of Fuzhou. Data of temperature, humidity, and wind speed were provided by the Meteorological Bureau of Fuzhou. Results revealed that on lag day 6, NO2, SO2, and CO were positively associated with the number of outpatient and emergency visits. Among the pollutants, SO2 had the highest effects on both outpatient visits (RR = 1.672, 95%CI 1.545, 1.809) and emergency visits (RR = 1.495, 95%CI 1.241, 1.800), and its effect on outpatient visits was stronger in children aged 0–4 years than in those aged 5–13 years (RR = 2.331 vs. 1.439). In conclusion, SO2 contributes substantially to the adverse effects of air pollutants on pediatric respiratory health in Fuzhou. Younger children were more affected by air pollution than their older counterparts.
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The datasets used during the current study are available from the corresponding author on reasonable request.
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This study was supported by the Fuzhou Major Science and Technology Project (No. 2020-Z-5) and the Fuzhou Science and Technology Project (No. 2020-WS-80).
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QZ: guarantor of integrity of the entire study; study concepts; study design; definition of intellectual content; literature research; clinical studies; experimental studies; data acquisition; data analysis; statistical analysis; manuscript preparation; manuscript editing; manuscript review. SLK: experimental studies; data acquisition; data analysis; statistical analysis; manuscript editing. XL: guarantor of integrity of the entire study; study concepts; study design; manuscript review. XYZ: guarantor of integrity of the entire study; study concepts; study design; definition of intellectual content; literature research; manuscript review. All authors read and approved the final manuscript.
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This study only collected the number of hospital visits without containing any personal data. Therefore, according to the IRB of the Fuzhou Center for Disease Control and Prevention, ethics approval and informed consent were unnecessary. The hospital visit data used the 10th Revision of the International Classification of Diseases (ICD-10) Code of respiratory diseases (J00-J99)
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Quan Zhou and Shu-Ling Kang are co-first authors.
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Zhou, Q., Kang, SL., Lin, X. et al. Impact of air pollutants on hospital visits for pediatric asthma in Fuzhou city, southeast China. Environ Sci Pollut Res 29, 58664–58674 (2022). https://doi.org/10.1007/s11356-022-19928-y
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DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s11356-022-19928-y