Asian dust storm elevates children's respiratory health risks: a spatiotemporal analysis of children's clinic visits across Taipei (Taiwan)

PLoS One. 2012;7(7):e41317. doi: 10.1371/journal.pone.0041317. Epub 2012 Jul 27.

Abstract

Concerns have been raised about the adverse impact of Asian dust storms (ADS) on human health; however, few studies have examined the effect of these events on children's health. Using databases from the Taiwan National Health Insurance and Taiwan Environmental Protection Agency, this study investigates the documented daily visits of children to respiratory clinics during and after ADS that occurred from 1997 to 2007 among 12 districts across Taipei City by applying a Bayesian structural additive regressive model controlled for spatial and temporal patterns. This study finds that the significantly impact of elevated children's respiratory clinic visits happened after ADS. Five of the seven lagged days had increasing percentages of relative rate, which was consecutively elevated from a 2-day to a 5-day lag by 0.63%∼2.19% for preschool children (i.e., 0∼6 years of age) and 0.72%∼3.17% for school children (i.e., 7∼14 years of age). The spatial pattern of clinic visits indicated that geographical heterogeneity was possibly associated with the clinic's location and accessibility. Moreover, day-of-week effects were elevated on Monday, Friday, and Saturday. We concluded that ADS may significantly increase the risks of respiratory diseases consecutively in the week after exposure, especially in school children.

Publication types

  • Clinical Trial
  • Research Support, Non-U.S. Gov't

MeSH terms

  • Adolescent
  • Child
  • Cyclonic Storms*
  • Dust*
  • Environmental Exposure / adverse effects*
  • Female
  • Humans
  • Male
  • Respiratory Tract Diseases / epidemiology*
  • Respiratory Tract Diseases / etiology*
  • Risk Factors
  • Taiwan / epidemiology
  • Time Factors

Substances

  • Dust

Grants and funding

This research was partially supported by funds from the National Science Council of Taiwan (NSC 100-2410-H-227-004) and (NSC 100-2628-E-002-005), and a research fund from the Environmental Protection Department of the New Taipei City Government in Taiwan. The funders had no role in the study design, data collection and analysis, decision to publish, or preparation of the manuscript.