Air Pollution and Childhood Asthma Hospitalizations in Chengdu, China: A Time-Series Study

Overview

Journal J Asthma Allergy

Publisher Dove Medical Press

Date 2025 Feb 24

PMID 39990055

Authors

Zijin Chen

Lei Zhang

Tao Ai

Yinghong Fan

Yanru Liu

Li Wang

Cheng Xie

Affiliations

Soon will be listed here.

Abstract

Purpose: Research on the relationship between air pollutants and hospitalization for asthma in children in developing countries remains inadequate. This study aimed to assess the short-term effects of air pollutants, including sulfur dioxide (SO), nitrogen dioxide (NO), carbon monoxide (CO), ozone (O), particulate matter ≤ 2.5 µm (PM), and particulate matter ≤ 10 µm (PM), on children hospitalized for asthma in Chengdu, China, from 2017-2022.

Patients And Methods: During the study period, 5592 children were hospitalized for asthma. A generalized additive model was used to control for seasonality, long-term trends, weather, day of the week, and holidays. The analysis was further stratified by age, sex, and season to estimate the associations.

Results: PM, PM, SO, NO and CO were significantly associated with an increased risk of hospitalization due to asthma. A 10 μg/m increase in PM, PM and CO at lag04 corresponded to an increase of 2.07%, 1.56%, and 0.33% in daily hospital admissions for asthma, respectively. A 10 μg/m increase in SO and NO at lag05 corresponded to an increase of 45.69% and 8.16% in daily hospital admissions for asthma, respectively. Further analysis by age found that PM and PM had a greater impact on children aged 5-6 years old while NO and CO mainly affected children under 7 years old. Analysis by by sex found that pollutants had a greater impact on hospital admissions in girls. Seasonal analysis revealed that pollutants had a more significant effect on admission during the winter.

Conclusion: Our results suggest that increased concentrations of PM, PM, SO, NO and CO in Chengdu lead to hospitalization for asthma in children and that a lag effect was observed, especially with SO. These findings highlight the need for stricter air quality controls to reduce childhood asthma hospitalizations.

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