Abstract
An increase in emergency department visits for respiratory
diseases was observed in association with the short-term exposure
of ambient air pollution. This association was investigated among
children from 5 to 17 years old due to their immature and sensitive
respiratory system. Traditional air pollution studies have
limitations of collecting data with inadequate coverage and coarse
resolution. The satellite remote sensing (RS) technique may help
resolve this problem. This study examined the association between
RS modeled air pollution and pediatric asthma/wheeze emergency
department (ED) visits in metropolitan Atlanta during 2001 through
2007. After controlling for meteorological and holiday effects, a
10 µg/m3 increase in three-day moving average
PM2.5 was positively associated with ED visits, rate
ratio (RR) = 1.026, 95% confidence interval (CI) = 1.014, 1.040.
The seasonal specific RR is 1.024 (95% CI =0.998, 1.031) for warm
season (May through October), and 1.043 (95% CI = 1.023, 1.064) for
cold season (November through April). Compared to previous SOPHIA
studies, our study obtained slightly different RR with a small
range of differences from 0 to 2.9%, and the effects of two seasons
were somewhat inconsistent with past SOPHIA studies. In conclusion,
the modeled ambient PM2.5 exposure is associated with
exacerbation of pediatric asthma and wheeze in Atlanta; RS provides
high resolution exposure data, which will contribute to the
precision of epidemiological studies.
Table of Contents
TABLE OF CONTENTS
CHAPTER TITLE
PAGE
Distribution Agreement
i
Approval Sheet
ii
Abstract Cover Page
iii
Abstract
iv
Cover Page
v
Acknowledgements
vi
Table of Contents
vii
List of Tables and Figures
viii
1 Background
1
2 Data Sources
8
2.1 Emergency Department (ED) Visits
8
2.2 PM2.5 Data
8
3 Methods
10
4 Results
13
5 Discussion
15
6 Conclusion
19
7 References
20
8 Tables
28
9 Figures
31
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