Respiratory Health Status of Children from Two Different Air Pollution Exposure Settings of Sri Lanka: a Cross-sectional Study

Overview

Journal Am J Ind Med

Specialty Occupational Medicine

Date 2012 Feb 3

PMID 22298308

Citations 6

Authors

Sumal Nandasena

Ananda R Wickremasinghe

Nalini Sathiakumar

Affiliations

Soon will be listed here.

Abstract

Background: Health effects due to air pollution is becoming a major public health problem with growing traffic congestion and establishment of small- to medium-scale industries with poor emission controls in urban cities of Sri Lanka.

Methods: Respiratory health status of 7- to 10-year-old children in two settings (urban and semi-urban) was assessed using standard questionnaires. Information on socio-demographic characteristics and potential determinants of both outdoor and indoor air pollutants exposure levels were also obtained. The respiratory health status of children in the two settings was compared.

Results: We found that children from the urban setting had a significantly higher prevalence of wheezing within the last 12 months as compared to children from the semi-urban setting (adjusted OR = 2.02; 95% CI = 1.13-3.59). Indoor cooking with unclean fuels was a risk factor for wheezing independent of the area of residence (adjusted OR = 1.57; 95% CI = 1.01-2.46).

Conclusions: Poor indoor air quality was a major determinant of wheezing for the overall study group. Children from urban areas of Sri Lanka have poorer respiratory health status as compared to children from semi-urban areas. Besides poor outdoor air quality, this difference may also be due to other unexplored factors which may differ between urban and semi-urban areas in Sri Lanka.

Citing Articles

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Prevalence and associated factors of wheezing illnesses of children aged three to five years living in under-served settlements of the Colombo Municipal Council in Sri Lanka: a cross-sectional study.

Seneviratne R, Gunawardena N BMC Public Health. 2018; 18(1):127.

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Indoor air pollution and respiratory health of children in the developing world.

Nandasena S, Wickremasinghe A, Sathiakumar N World J Clin Pediatr. 2014; 2(2):6-15.

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