Bi J, D’Souza RR, Moss S, Senthilkumar N, Russell AG, Scovronick NC, Chang HH, Ebelt S. Acute Effects of Ambient Air Pollution on Asthma Emergency Department Visits in Ten U.S. States.
Environ Health Perspect 2023;
131:47003. [PMID:
37011135 PMCID:
PMC10069759 DOI:
10.1289/ehp11661]
[Citation(s) in RCA: 4] [Impact Index Per Article: 4.0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [What about the content of this article? (0)] [Affiliation(s)] [Abstract] [MESH Headings] [Grants] [Track Full Text] [Figures] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 06/01/2022] [Revised: 02/05/2023] [Accepted: 03/02/2023] [Indexed: 06/19/2023]
Abstract
BACKGROUND
Previous studies of short-term ambient air pollution exposure and asthma morbidity in the United States have been limited to a small number of cities and/or pollutants and with limited consideration of effects across ages.
OBJECTIVES
To estimate acute age group-specific effects of fine and coarse particulate matter (PM), major PM components, and gaseous pollutants on emergency department (ED) visits for asthma during 2005-2014 across the United States.
METHODS
We acquired ED visit and air quality data in regions surrounding 53 speciation sites in 10 states. We used quasi-Poisson log-linear time-series models with unconstrained distributed exposure lags to estimate site-specific acute effects of air pollution on asthma ED visits overall and by age group (1-4, 5-17, 18-49, 50-64, and 65+ y), controlling for meteorology, time trends, and influenza activity. We then used a Bayesian hierarchical model to estimate pooled associations from site-specific associations.
RESULTS
Our analysis included 3.19 million asthma ED visits. We observed positive associations for multiday cumulative exposure to all air pollutants examined [e.g., 8-d exposure to PM2.5: rate ratio of 1.016 with 95% credible interval (CI) of (1.008, 1.025) per 6.3-μg/m3 increase, PM10-2.5: 1.014 (95% CI: 1.007, 1.020) per 9.6-μg/m3 increase, organic carbon: 1.016 (95% CI: 1.009, 1.024) per 2.8-μg/m3 increase, and ozone: 1.008 (95% CI: 0.995, 1.022) per 0.02-ppm increase]. PM2.5 and ozone showed stronger effects at shorter lags, whereas associations of traffic-related pollutants (e.g., elemental carbon and oxides of nitrogen) were generally stronger at longer lags. Most pollutants had more pronounced effects on children (<18 y old) than adults; PM2.5 had strong effects on both children and the elderly (>64 y old); and ozone had stronger effects on adults than children.
CONCLUSIONS
We reported positive associations between short-term air pollution exposure and increased rates of asthma ED visits. We found that air pollution exposure posed a higher risk for children and older populations. https://doi.org/10.1289/EHP11661.
Collapse