2022

Author(s): Jin X, Xu Z, Liang Y, Sun X, Yan S, Wu Y, Li Y, Mei L, Cheng J, Wang X, Song J, Pan R, Yi W, Yang Z, Su H

The influence of temperature on childhood asthma was self-evident, yet the issue of whether the relationship will be synergized by air pollution remains unclear. The study aimed to investigate whether the relationship between short-term temperature exposure and childhood asthma hospitalization was modified by particulate matter (PM). Data on childhood asthma hospitalization, meteorological factors, and air pollutants during 2013-2016 in Hefei, China, were collected. First, a basic Poisson regression model combined with a distributed lag nonlinear model was used to assess the temperature-childhood asthma hospitalization relationship. Then, two interactive strategies were applied to explore the modification effect of PM on the temperature-childhood asthma hospitalization association. We found a greater effect of cold (5th percentile of temperature) on asthma during days with higher PM(2.5) (RR: 2.16, 95% CI: 1.38, 3.38) or PM(10) (RR: 1.87, 95% CI:1.20, 2.91) than that during days with lower PM(2.5) (RR: 1.64, 95% CI: 1.06, 2.54) or PM(10) (RR: 1.52, 95% CI: 0.98, 2.36). In addition, we observed a greater modification effect of PM(2.5) on the cold-asthma association than did PM(10), with a per 10 μg/m(3) increase in PM(2.5) and PM(10) associated with increases of 0.065 and 0.025 for the RR corresponding to the 5th temperature percentile, respectively. For the temperature-related AF, moderate cold showed the largest change magnitude with the PM levels rising compared with other temperature ranges. For the subgroup, Females and those aged 6-18 years were more sensitive to the modification effect of PM(2.5) or PM(10) on the cold-asthma association. Our findings demonstrated that particulate matter could modify the associations between temperature and childhood asthma hospitalization.

DOI: https://dx.doi.org/10.1016/j.envres.2022.113848