Effects of air pollution on asthma vary in different study areas, and long-term time series research on the effects of air pollution on asthma outpatients and emergency hospital visits has not been conducted in Northeast China. We assessed the impact of air pollutants on the risk of asthma outpatients and emergency hospital visits in Shenyang, China. A distributed lag non-linear model with a Poisson regression was used to assess the short-term effects of air pollutants on asthma outpatient and emergency hospital visits between January 1, 2013 and December 31, 2017. Confounding factors were adjusted using natural cubic splines. Ozone (O3), carbon monoxide (CO), and suspended particulates < 10 μm in aerodynamic diameter (PM10) were positively associated with the number of asthma hospital visits. The largest cumulative effects of O3, CO, and PM10 on hospital visits were on lag day 2 (RR = 1.163, 95% CI 1.051-1.287) for 0-5-year-old childhood asthma, on lag day 3 (RR = 1.386, 95% CI 1.136-1.69) for asthma in winter, and on lag day 10 (RR = 1.148, 95% CI 0.942-1.399) for female asthma, respectively. The cumulative effect of air pollution represented by the air quality index (AQI) was largest on lag day 10 for 0-5-year-old childhood asthma with an increase of 28.6% (95% CI 6.5-55.4) hospital visits every IQR increment of the AQI. CO, O3, and PM10 were the main air pollutants in Shenyang city. Children with bronchitis asthma were more vulnerable to air pollution during the cold season.
Keywords: Air pollution; Air quality index; Asthma; DLNM; Hospital visit; Time series.