Roles of Ambient Temperature and PM2.5 on Childhood Acute Bronchitis and Bronchiolitis from Viral Infection

• Published in: Viruses 2022-08, Vol.14 (9), p.1932
• Main Authors: Chen, Pei-Chun, Mou, Chih-Hsin, Chen, Chao W., Hsieh, Dennis P. H., Tsai, Shan P., Wei, Chang-Ching, Sung, Fung-Chang
• Format: Article
• Language: English
• Subjects: acute bronchitis and bronchiolitis; Air pollution; ambient temperature; Bronchitis; Bronchopneumonia; Childhood; Children; Climate change; Cold; fine particulate matter; human respiratory syncytial virus; Low temperature; Outdoor air quality; Respiratory syncytial virus; temperature inversion; Viral infections
• ISSN: 1999-4915; 1999-4915
• DOI: 10.3390/v14091932

Studies have associated the human respiratory syncytial virus which causes seasonal childhood acute bronchitis and bronchiolitis (CABs) with climate change and air pollution. We investigated this association using the insurance claims data of 3,965,560 children aged ≤ 12 years from Taiwan from 2006–2016. The monthly average incident CABs increased with increasing PM2.5 levels and exhibited an inverse association with temperature. The incidence was 1.6-fold greater in January than in July (13.7/100 versus 8.81/100), declined during winter breaks (February) and summer breaks (June–August). The highest incidence was 698 cases/day at 37.0 μg/m3, with an adjusted relative risk (aRR) of 1.01 (95% confidence interval [CI] = 0.97–1.04) compared to 568 cases/day at 37.0 μg/m3 and decreased further to 392 cases/day (aRR = 0.61, 95% CI = 0.58–0.65) when PM2.5 was