Associations between air pollutant and pneumonia and asthma requiring hospitalization among children aged under 5 years in Ningbo, 2015-2017

IntroductionExposure to ambient air pollutants is associated with an increased incidence of respiratory diseases such as pneumonia and asthma, especially in younger children. We investigated the relationship between rates of hospitalization of children aged under 5 years for pneumonia and asthma and the concentration of air pollutants in Ningbo between January 1, 2015 and August 29, 2017. MethodsData were obtained from the Ningbo Air Quality Data Real-time Publishing System and the big data platform of the Ningbo Health Information Center. A generalized additive model was established via logarithmic link function and utilized to evaluate the effect of pollutant concentration on lag dimension and perform sensitivity analysis. ResultsA total of 10,301 cases of pneumonia and 115 cases of asthma were identified over the course of this study. Results revealed that PM2.5, PM10, SO2 and NO2 were significantly associated with hospitalization for pneumonia and asthma in children under 5 years of age. For every 10-unit increase in lag03 air pollutant concentration, hospitalization for pneumonia and asthma due to PM2.5, PM10, SO2 and NO2 increased by 2.22% (95%CI: 0.64%, 3.82%), 1.94% (95%CI: 0.85%, 3.04%), 11.21% (95%CI: 4.70%, 18.10%) and 5.42% (95%CI: 3.07%, 7.82%), respectively. DiscussionAdverse effects of air pollutants were found to be more severe in children aged 1 to 5 years and adverse effects due to PM2.5, PM10 and SO2 were found to be more severe in girls. Our findings underscore the need for implementation of effective public health measures to urgently improve air quality and reduce pediatric hospitalizations due to respiratory illness.

Automated summary

This study investigated the relationship between hospitalization rates for pneumonia and asthma in children under 5 years old and the concentration of air pollutants in Ningbo. The results showed that PM2.5, PM10, SO2, and NO2 were significantly associated with hospitalization rates for pneumonia and asthma. For every 10-unit increase in lag03 air pollutant concentration, hospitalization rates increased by 2.22%, 1.94%, 11.21%, and 5.42% for PM2.5, PM10, SO2, and NO2, respectively. These findings highlight the urgent need to improve air quality and reduce pediatric hospitalizations due to respiratory illness.