Effect of Preconception, Prenatal and Postnatal Exposure to Ambient Air Pollution on Laryngitis in Southern Chinese Children

• Published in: Frontiers in environmental science 2022-02, Vol.10
• Main Authors: Liu, Yanlin, Deng, Miaomiao, Zhang, Duo, Lu, Chan, Lu, Shaoyou
• Format: Article
• Language: English
• Subjects: air pollution; childhood laryngitis; early life exposure; pregnancy; retrospective cohort study
• ISSN: 2296-665X; 2296-665X
• DOI: 10.3389/fenvs.2022.830106

Environmental exposure is considered to be a main triggering factor of laryngitis, a common upper respiratory tract infection, especially in developing countries. However, unclear detrimental air pollutants and lack of understanding on their early-life exposure and laryngitis warrant further investigation. Therefore, a retrospective cohort including 2328 preschool children was conducted during 2015–2016 in Shenzhen, China. We measured ambient air quality of PM 10 , SO 2 and NO 2 in 12 monitoring stations, and obtained childhood laryngitis prevalence and confounding covariates by questionnaire. Multiple logistic regression analysis showed that the lifetime prevalence of childhood laryngitis (12.2%) was associated with an interquartile range increase in late preconception (adjusted odds ratio: 1.43, 95% confidence interval: 1.06‒1.92), prenatal (1.35, 1.02–1.79) and early-postnatal (1.32, 1.11‒1.57) exposure to SO 2 . Sensitivity analysis revealed that this relationship appeared more obvious among boys without parental atopy, mold/damp stains, or window condensation. Nevertheless, there was no evidence for the association between early-life PM 10 and NO 2 exposure and childhood laryngitis. These findings suggest that early-life exposure to SO 2 significantly increases risk of childhood laryngitis. Preventive measures need to be implemented to mitigate industrial air pollution.