Objective To evaluate the effects of air pollutants on outpatient visits of children's respiratory diseases in Weifang.
Methods Respiratory disease outpatient data of children aged 0-14 years were retrieved from Weifang Maternity and Child Care Hospital in 2016. Meteorological data and air pollution data in 2016 were collected from the National Urban Air Quality Realtime Distribution Platform. The correlations between air pollutants and meteorological factors were analyzed by Spearman's rank correlation. The effects of air pollutants on children's respiratory diseases outpatient visit volume were analyzed by single-factor and multi-factor generalized additive models (GAM).
Results There were 132 524 children of 0-14 years old with respiratory diseases visiting Weifang Maternity and Child Care Hospital in 2016. The Spearman correlation analysis results showed that there were significant correlations among sulfur dioxide (SO2), nitrogen dioxide (NO2), carbon monoxide (CO), ozone (O3), coarse particulate matters (PM10), and fine particulate matters (PM2.5) concentrations (P < 0.05 or P < 0.01). The single-factor GAM analysis results showed that PM2.5, PM10, SO2 and NO2 had the maximum effect on daily outpatient visit volume of children's respiratory diseases on lay 1 day, with the RR and 95%CI being 1.025 (1.024-1.026), 1.014 (1.013-1.015), 1.065 (1.063-1.067), and 1.057 (1.053-1.060), respectively, and the risks decreased gradually with the extension of lag days. The multi-factor GAM analysis results showed that the risks of respiratory diseases for each 10 μg/m3 increase of PM2.5, PM10, SO2, NO2, and O3 concentrations were 1.045 (1.040-1.051), 1.004 (1.001-1.007), 1.010 (1.006-1.015), 1.041 (1.033-1.049), and 1.004 (1.002-1.005), respectively. The risks of respiratory diseases for the increase of temperature, rainfall, and relative humidity were 0.978 (0.976-0.979), 0.926 (0.899-0.953), and 0.992 (0.991-0.992), respectively. The daily outpatient visit volume of children's respiratory diseases was also affected by day-of-the-week effect (P < 0.05).
Conclusion Increased risks of children's respiratory diseases may be caused by increased levels of PM2.5, PM10, SO2, NO2, and O3, as well as decreased levels of temperature, rainfall, and relative humidity.
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