Ambient air pollution and the prevalence of rhinoconjunctivitis in adolescents: A worldwide ecological analysis
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Published version
Supporting information
Author(s)
Type
Journal Article
Abstract
Whether exposure to outdoor air pollution increases the prevalence of rhinoconjunctivitis in children is unclear. Using data from Phase Three of the International Study of Asthma and Allergies in childhood (ISAAC) we investigated associations of rhinoconjunctivitis prevalence in adolescents with model-based estimates of ozone, and satellite-based estimates of fine (diameter <2.5µm) particulate matter (PM2.5) and nitrogen dioxide (NO2). Information on rhinoconjunctivitis (defined as self-reported nose symptoms without a cold or flu accompanied by itchy watery eyes in the past 12 months) was available on 505,400 children aged 13-14 years, in 183 centres in 83 countries. Centre-level prevalence estimates were calculated and linked geographically with estimates of long-term average concentrations of NO2, ozone and PM2.5. Multi-level models were fitted adjusting for population density, climate, sex and Gross National Income. Information on parental smoking, truck traffic and cooking fuel was available for a restricted set of centres (77 in 36 countries). Between-centres within-countries, the estimated change in rhinoconjunctivitis prevalence per 100 children, was 0.171 (95% Confidence Interval; -0.013, 0.354) per 10% increase in PM2.5, 0.096 (-0.003, 0.195) per 10% increase in NO2 and -0.186 (-0.390, 0.018) per 1 ppbV increase in ozone. Between-countries, rhinoconjunctivitis prevalence was significantly negatively associated with both ozone and PM2.5. In the restricted dataset, the latter association became less negative following adjustment for parental smoking and open fires for cooking. In conclusion, there were no significant within-country associations of rhinoconjunctivitis prevalence with study pollutants. Negative between-country associations with PM2.5 and ozone require further investigation.
Date Issued
2018-08-01
Date Acceptance
2018-04-29
Citation
Air Quality, Atmosphere and Health, 2018, 11 (11), pp.755-764
ISSN
1873-9326
Publisher
Springer Verlag
Start Page
755
End Page
764
Journal / Book Title
Air Quality, Atmosphere and Health
Volume
11
Issue
11
Copyright Statement
© The Author(s) 2018. This article is distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International License (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/), which permits unrestricted use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided you give appropriate credit to the original author(s) and the source, provide a link to the Creative Commons license, and indicate if changes were made.
Subjects
Science & Technology
Life Sciences & Biomedicine
Environmental Sciences
Environmental Sciences & Ecology
Air pollution
Rhinoconjunctivitis
Childhood
NO2
Ozone
PM
ALLERGIC RHINITIS
CHILDHOOD ISAAC
ASTHMA
CHILDREN
SYMPTOMS
ASSOCIATION
EXPOSURE
PHASE-3
ECZEMA
CLIMATE
Air pollution
Childhood
NO2
Ozone
PM
Rhinoconjunctivitis
ISAAC Phase Three Study Group
1117 Public Health and Health Services
Publication Status
Published
Date Publish Online
2018-06-23