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. 2023 Jan 20:11:1058368.
doi: 10.3389/fpubh.2023.1058368. eCollection 2023.

Short-term effect of ambient air pollution on outpatient visits for children in Guangzhou, China

Sili Chen  1 , Binhe Xu  2 , Tongxing Shi  3   4 , Qiaoyuan Yang  1   4
Affiliations

Short-term effect of ambient air pollution on outpatient visits for children in Guangzhou, China

Sili Chen et al. Front Public Health. .

Abstract

This study examined the short-term relationship between ambient air pollutants and children's outpatient visits, and identified the effect of modifications by season. Daily recordings of air pollutants (CO, NO2, O3, SO2, PM10, and PM2.5) and children's outpatient visit data were collected in Guangzhou from 2015 to 2019. A generalized additive model adjusted for potential confounding was introduced to verify the association between ambient air pollution and outpatient visits for children. Subgroup analysis by season was performed to evaluate the potential effects. A total of 5,483,014 children's outpatient visits were recorded. The results showed that a 10 μg/m3 increase in CO, NO2, O3, SO2, PM10, and PM2.5 corresponded with a 0.19% (95% CI: 0.15-0.24%), 2.46% (2.00-2.92%), 0.27% (0.07-0.46%), 7.16% (4.80-9.57%), 1.16% (0.83-1.49%), and 1.35% (0.88-1.82%) increase in children's outpatient visits on the lag0 of exposure, respectively. The relationships were stronger for O3, PM10, and PM2.5 in the warm seasons, and for CO, NO2, and SO2 in the cool seasons. When adjusting for the co-pollutants, the effects of CO, NO2, and PM10 were robust. The results of this study indicate that six air pollutants might increase the risk of children's outpatient visits in Guangzhou, China, especially in the cool season.

Keywords: air pollution; children; outpatient; short-term; time-series study.

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Conflict of interest statement

The authors declare that the research was conducted in the absence of any commercial or financial relationships that could be construed as a potential conflict of interest.

Figures

Figure 1
Figure 1
Excess risk (%) and 95% confidence intervals of children's outpatient visits a 10 μg/m3 increase in various ambient air pollutant concentrations along different lag days.
Figure 2
Figure 2
The exposure–response curves of the associations of different air pollution with the risk of children's outpatient visits in single-pollutant model. The black line represents the average relative risk of the pollutant concentration, and the dashed lines are the 95% confidence interval of the risk estimates.
Figure 3
Figure 3
ER (%) and 95% CI of children's outpatient visits a 10 μg/m3 increase in air pollution concentrations on the day of exposure.
See this image and copyright information in PMC

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