To investigate the role of different pattern of ambient air pollutants exposure during early life on childhood pneumonia, we conducted a retrospective cohort study of 3226 preschool children aged three to six years in Shenzhen, China during 2015 to 2016. Each child's exposure to three main air pollutants (PM10, SO2 and NO2) was calculated by the inverse distance weighted method. Multiple logistic regression analysis was used to investigate the pneumonia risk of early life exposure to air pollution. A relatively high prevalence of pneumonia (24.3%) among preschool children in Shenzhen was significantly associated with exposure to PM10 and SO2 during the first year of life, with adjusted odds ratios = 1.24 (1.05, 1.46) and 1.20 (1.05, 1.38) respectively. However, we observed no relationship between NO2 exposure and childhood pneumonia in pregnancy and first year of life. Sensitivity analysis suggested that boys, younger children (three to four years), non-preterm children, children without parental atopy and with exposure to environmental tobacco smoke were more susceptible to the impact of exposure to PM10 and SO2 on their suffering of pneumonia during their first year of life. Early-postnatal exposure to classical air pollution at low concentration during the first year of life can have an important role in enhancing the risk of childhood pneumonia, especially with the sensitive population.
Environmental exposure is considered to be a main triggering factor of laryngitis, a common upper respiratory tract infection, especially in developing countries. However, unclear detrimental air pollutants and lack of understanding on their early-life exposure and laryngitis warrant further investigation. Therefore, a retrospective cohort including 2328 preschool children was conducted during 2015–2016 in Shenzhen, China. We measured ambient air quality of PM10, SO2 and NO2 in 12 monitoring stations, and obtained childhood laryngitis prevalence and confounding covariates by questionnaire. Multiple logistic regression analysis showed that the lifetime prevalence of childhood laryngitis (12.2%) was associated with an interquartile range increase in late preconception (adjusted odds ratio: 1.43, 95% confidence interval: 1.06‒1.92), prenatal (1.35, 1.02–1.79) and early-postnatal (1.32, 1.11‒1.57) exposure to SO2. Sensitivity analysis revealed that this relationship appeared more obvious among boys without parental atopy, mold/damp stains, or window condensation. Nevertheless, there was no evidence for the association between early-life PM10 and NO2 exposure and childhood laryngitis. These findings suggest that early-life exposure to SO2 significantly increases risk of childhood laryngitis. Preventive measures need to be implemented to mitigate industrial air pollution.
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