Objective: We studied the short-term effects of air pollutant concentrations in Suzhou City on respiratory infections in children of different age groups.
Methods: We employed clinical data from children hospitalized with respiratory infections at the Children's Hospital of Soochow University during 2014-2016, and air quality for Suzhou City covering the same period.We investigated the relationships between the air pollutant concentrations and respiratory tract infections in children by causative pathogen using time series models with lagged effects.
Results: The results of single-pollutant models showed that PM2.5, PM10, NO2, SO2 and CO had statistically significant associations with respiratory tract infections in children under 3 years, with the largest effect sizes at a lag of 3 weeks. Notably, the multi-pollutant model found PM2.5 was significantly associated with viral respiratory in children under 7 months, and bacterial respiratory infections in other age groups, while PM10 concentrations were associated with viral infections in preschool children.
Conclusion: PM2.5, PM10 and NO2 are the main atmospheric pollutants in Suzhou. The associations between pollutant concentrations and viral and bacterial respiratory infections were stronger among children under 3 years than for older age group.s PM2.5 had the strongest influence on viral and Mycoplasma pneumoniae respiratory infections when multiple pollutants were tested together.
Keywords: Air quality; Children; Model selection; Pathogens; Respiratory tract infection.