A Prospective Study of the Impact of Air Pollution on Respiratory Symptoms and Infections in Infants

• Published in: American journal of respiratory and critical care medicine 2013-06, Vol.187 (12), p.1341-1348
• Main Authors: STERN, Georgette, LATZIN, Philipp, RÖÖSLI, Martin, FUCHS, Oliver, PROIETTI, Elena, KUEHNI, Claudia, FREY, Urs
• Format: Article
• Language: English
• Subjects: Air pollution; Air Pollution - adverse effects; Anesthesia. Intensive care medicine. Transfusions. Cell therapy and gene therapy; Asthma; Babies; Biological and medical sciences; Environment. Living conditions; Female; Humans; Infant; Infections; Inflammation; Intensive care medicine; Male; Medical sciences; Morbidity; Nitrogen dioxide; Oxidative stress; Pneumology; Pollutants; Prospective Studies; Public health. Hygiene; Public health. Hygiene-occupational medicine; Respiratory Tract Infections - diagnosis; Respiratory Tract Infections - epidemiology; Respiratory Tract Infections - etiology; Risk factors; Tobacco smoke
• ISSN: 1073-449X; 1535-4970
• DOI: 10.1164/rccm.201211-2008oc

There is increasing evidence that short-term exposure to air pollution has a detrimental effect on respiratory health, but data from healthy populations, particularly infants, are scarce. To assess the association of air pollution with frequency and severity of respiratory symptoms and infections measured weekly in healthy infants. In a prospective birth cohort of 366 infants of unselected mothers, respiratory health was assessed weekly by telephone interviews during the first year of life (19,106 total observations). Daily mean levels of particulate matter (PM10), nitrogen dioxide (NO2), and ozone (O3) were obtained from local monitoring stations. We determined the association of the preceding week's pollutant levels with symptom scores and respiratory tract infections using a generalized additive mixed model with an autoregressive component. In addition, we assessed whether neonatal lung function influences this association and whether duration of infectious episodes differed between weeks with normal PM10 and weeks with elevated levels. We found a significant association between air pollution and respiratory symptoms, particularly in the week after respiratory tract infections (risk ratio, 1.13 [1.02-1.24] per 10 μg/m(3) PM10 levels) and in infants with premorbid lung function. During times of elevated PM10 (>33.3 μg/m(3)), duration of respiratory tract infections increased by 20% (95% confidence interval, 2-42%). Exposure to even moderate levels of air pollution was associated with increased respiratory symptoms in healthy infants. Particularly in infants with premorbid lung function and inflammation, air pollution contributed to longer duration of infectious episodes with a potentially large socioeconomic impact.