US EPA

3023147 

Journal Article 

Abstract 

Short-term effects of ambient air pollution on asthma symptoms in children 

Velicka, H; Keder, J; Brabec, M; Maly, M; Puklova, V; Kazmarova, H 

2015 

1 

Tropical Medicine and International Health
ISSN: 1360-2276
EISSN: 1365-3156 

20 

Supplement 1 

264 

English 

WOS:000360758801240 

is part of a larger document 3513636 Abstracts of the 9th European Congress on Tropical Medicine and International Health, 6-10 September 2015, Basel, Switzerland - Poster Sessions

Introduction: Asthma is the most frequent chronic disease among children worldwide. Reducing the level of air pollution is one prospective way of prevention of asthma. The aim of our project was to collect data on short-term effects of air pollution on asthmatic children in Ostrava, Czech Republic. Ostrava region is one of the worst air-polluted areas in Europe.

Methods: The study concerned 244 asthma patients diagnosed by doctors, severity of asthma classified as mild persistent or moderate persistent, age range of 6–18 years, residents of Ostrava city. The respondents (or their parents) filled an initial questionnaire. Then 232 participants daily completed one diary record, consisting of entries for the asthma symptoms and changes of the state of health. The study covered 4 months of the heating season November 2013–February 2014. The concentrations of ambient air pollutants (particulate matter PM10, nitrogen dioxide NO2 and sulphur dioxide SO2) were measured and provided as smoothed daily maps. GPS coordinates of two addresses of each respondent (the residence and the school) and time spent daily on those addresses were linked with the maps of concentrations of air pollutants. Thus the exposure of the respondents to each pollutant could be determined precisely. The relationships between the cumulative exposures and the cumulative effects were established by locally estimated scatter-plot smoothing (LOESS). After that, generalized additive models (GAM) with spline components were used. The models of increasing complexity permitted to take account of the pollutant concentrations, the apparent temperature and other factors in a single optimization process. The best fit was found using the Akaike information criterion (AIC).

Results: A substantial association between short-term air pollution changes and the complaints reported by the respondents was observed. It was significant for SO2, while non significant for NO2 and PM10. In inverse question (incidence of ‘no asthma symptoms’) there was a significant association with lower PM10 exposure and with lower SO2 exposure.

Conclusions: The study has demonstrated effects of short-term changes of the ambient air pollution on asthmatic children. A crucial point was the transformation of the rough input data into the set of individual exposures for each of the respondents. Acknowledgement Financial Support of The Grant Agency Ministry of Health of the Czech Republic (IGA MZ CR c. NT 14608-3/2013).

Disclosure: Nothing to disclose. 

9th European Congress on Tropical Medicine and International Health 

Basel, Switzerland 

September 6-10, 2015