Association by Spatial Interpolation between Ozone Levels and Lung Function of Residents at an Industrial Complex in South Korea

• Published in: International journal of environmental research and public health 2016-07, Vol.13 (7), p.728
• Main Authors: Jung, Soon-Won, Lee, Kyoungho, Cho, Yong-Sung, Choi, Ji-Hee, Yang, Wonho, Kang, Tack-Shin, Park, Choonghee, Kim, Geun-Bae, Yu, Seung-Do, Son, Bu-Soon
• Format: Article
• Language: English
• Subjects: Activity patterns; Adolescent; Adult; Aged; Air Pollutants - adverse effects; Air Pollutants - analysis; Air pollution; Air Pollution - adverse effects; Child; Children; Environmental risk; Epidemiology; Exposure; Female; Health risks; Humans; Investigations; Lung - drug effects; Lungs; Male; Methods; Ozone; Ozone - adverse effects; Ozone - analysis; Pollutants; Republic of Korea; Respiratory function; Respiratory Function Tests; Risk analysis; Risk Factors; Spatial Analysis; Statistical analysis; Temporal resolution
• ISSN: 1660-4601; 1661-7827; 1660-4601
• DOI: 10.3390/ijerph13070728

Spatial interpolation is employed to improve exposure estimates and to assess adverse health effects associated with environmental risk factors. Since various studies have reported that high ozone (O₃) concentrations can give rise to adverse effects on respiratory symptoms and lung function, we investigated the association between O₃ levels and lung function using a variety of spatial interpolation techniques and evaluated how different methods for estimating exposure may influence health results for a cohort from an industrial complex (Gwangyang Bay) in South Korea in 2009. To estimate daily concentrations of O₃ in each subject, four different methods were used, which include simple averaging, nearest neighbor, inverse distance weighting, and kriging. Also, to compare the association between O₃ levels and lung function by age-groups, we explored ozone's impacts on three age-related groups: children (9-14 years), adults (15-64 years), and the elderly (≥65 years). The overall change of effect size on lung function in each age group tended to show similar patterns for lag and methods for estimating exposure. A significant negative association was only observed between O₃ levels and FVC and FEV₁ for most of the lag and methods in children. The largest effect of O₃ levels was found at the average for the lung function test day and last 2 days (0-2 days). In conclusions, the spatial interpolation methods may benefit in providing individual-level exposure with appropriate temporal resolution from ambient monitors. However, time-activity patterns of residents, monitoring site locations, methodological choices, and other factors should be considered to minimize exposure misclassification.