Space-time analysis of the effect of air pollution on children’s health

The study aimed to investigate the short-term association between air pollution and emergency treatments for respiratory diseases in children 0 to 6 years of age. This was an ecological space-time study in Greater Metropolitan Vitória, Espírito Santo State, Brazil. A Poisson regression general additive model (GAM) used the number of daily treatments for respiratory diseases as the dependent variable, and the independent variables were daily concentrations of air pollutants (PM₁₀, SO₂, NO₂, O₃, and CO), temperature, humidity, and precipitation. Average daily concentrations were used to make estimates for the entire metropolitan area and in loco analyses considering children residing in a 2km radius around 8 air quality monitoring stations. An increase of 10μg/m³ in the concentration of air pollutants increased the risk of emergency treatment for respiratory disease. In the overall area, for PM₁₀, the increase was 2.43%, 2.73%, and 3.29% in the cumulative values at 5, 6, and 7 days, respectively. For SO₂, the increase was 4.47% on the day of exposure, 5.26% two days later, and 6.47%, 8.8%, 8.76%, and 7.09% for the cumulative values at days 2, 3, 4, and 5 days, respectively. CO showed a significant association for residents around two stations, and O₃ for only one. Even within the limits set by the World Health Organization, the pollutants PM₁₀, SO₂, NO₂, and O₃ are associated with increased risk of treatment for respiratory diseases in children 0 to 6 years of age, and some effects were only identified when disaggregating by neighborhood, i.e., in loco, which allows capturing greater variation in the data.

Keywords:
Air Pollution; Respiratory Tract Diseases; Child