Estimated Effects of Asian Dust Storms on Spatiotemporal Distributions of Clinic Visits for Respiratory Diseases in Taipei Children (Taiwan)

BACKGROUND: Increases in certain cause-specific hospital admissions have been reported during Asian dust storms (ADS), which primarily originate from north and northwest China during winter and spring. However, few studies have investigated the relationship between the ADS and clinic visits for respiratory diseases in children. OBJECTIVE: We investigated the general impact to children's health across space and time by analyzing daily clinic visits for respiratory diseases among preschool and schoolchildren registered in 12 districts of Taipei City during 1997-2007 from the National Health Insurance dataset. METHODS: We applied a structural additive regression model to estimate the association between ADS episodes and children's clinic visits for respiratory diseases, controlling for space and time variations. RESULTS: Compared with weeks before ADS events, the rate of clinic visits during weeks after ADS events increased 2.54% (95% credible interval = 2.43, 2.66) for preschool children (<= 6 years of age) and 5.03% (95% credible interval = 4.87, 5.20) for schoolchildren (7-14 years of age). Spatial heterogeneity in relative rates of clinic visits was also identified. Compared with the mean level of Taipei City, higher relative rates appeared in districts with or near large hospitals and medical centers. CONCLUSION: To our knowledge, this is the first population-based study to assess the impact of ADS on children's respiratory health. Our analysis suggests that children's respiratory health was affected by ADS events across all of Taipei, especially among schoolchildren.