Effects Of Air Pollution On Respiratory Diseases And Symptoms In School Age Children: A Longitudinal Study

Objective To find out the respiratory health status of school age children of elementary schools in Ma An Shan City of Eastern Anhui and to explore the effects of air pollution on children's common respiratory symptoms and diseases.Methods Applying the method of cluster random sampling, six elementary schools were selected as the study fields. All the students from grade 1 to grade 5 in every school were included in the study. A longitudinal investigation was carried out bimonthly for one year adopting respiratory health questionnaires. The methods of Generalized Estimating Equations (GEE) and Multiple Logistic Regression were employed for data analyse.Results (1) As far as outdoor air pollution factors are concerned, those students who study in the school located in relative polluted area are at higher risk of suffering from common respiratory symptoms and diseases than those students who study in control area, differences of the most items between them have statistical significance (P<0.05) . Busy road around home has some effects on cough , bringing up phlegm , snuffle sore throat, and it is statistical significantly associated with pneumonia in children (P<0.05). (2) As to indoor air pollution factors, warming in winter using solid cooking fuel mostly , family smoking indoor and holding stuffed soft toys have obvious effects on respiratory health in children. Generally speaking, exposing to one or several kinds of these factors will increase the risk of suffering from common respiratory symptoms and diseases. There is no statistically significant relationship for sharing bedroom with respiratory health in children.Conclusion Indoor and outdoor air pollution have certain effects on children's respiratory health. Children's family should make endeavour to reduce and eliminate the source of indoor air pollution. The government and relevant departments should strengthen harnessing and monitoring of air pollution in order to reduce and prevent the occurrence of respiratory diseases in children.