Tzivian Lilian
Department of Epidemiology and Health Services Evaluation, Faculty of Health Sciences, Ben-Gurion University of the Negev, Beer-Sheva, Israel.
J Asthma. 2011 Jun;48(5):470-81. doi: 10.3109/02770903.2011.570407. Epub 2011 Apr 13.
Asthma, a chronic inflammatory disease of the airways, is associated with reversible airway obstruction and hyperresponsiveness to triggers; clinical symptoms include wheezing, episodic cough, shortness of breath, and increased mucous production. Ambient or outdoor environmental exposure to ozone, particulate matter, sulfur dioxide, and nitrogen oxides has been well documented to exacerbate asthma. Children appear to be most vulnerable to the harmful effects of ambient air pollutants. As their lungs are not completely developed, children may experience greater exposure to environmental pollutants than adults and the higher doses of varied composition may remain in their lungs for a greater duration. Altogether, the negative effects of air pollutants on pulmonary function place children at a greater risk of air pollutant-induced exacerbation of asthma for the duration of their lives.
The aim of this review was to assess recently published literature regarding the influence of air pollution on asthma in children.
For this work, we reviewed articles found in PubMed using the key words "outdoor air pollution, asthma, and children" which were published between 2006 and 2009. Only those articles that had a full version available in PubMed were analyzed.
We reviewed studies published between 2006 and 2009 examining the effect of outdoor air pollution on asthma in children. In total, we evaluated 25 articles; of these, 9 were published in 2006, 3 in 2007, 8 in 2008, and 5 in 2009. Of these 25 studies, 1 was a clinical trial, 6 were cross-sectional, 4 were case-control (2 with a case-crossover design), 12 were cohort prospective, and 2 were cohort retrospective studies with varied follow-up times ranging from 10 days to 7 years. The ages of children also differed, ranging from birth to 18 years of age.
All studies reviewed in this work indicate that outdoor air pollution affects the appearance and exacerbation of asthma in children. Although these findings are of great interest, the limitations of noted works make future investigations of the effect of air pollution on asthma in children essential.
哮喘是一种气道慢性炎症性疾病，与可逆性气道阻塞及对触发因素的高反应性相关；临床症状包括喘息、发作性咳嗽、呼吸急促以及黏液分泌增多。环境或室外环境暴露于臭氧、颗粒物、二氧化硫和氮氧化物已被充分证明会加重哮喘。儿童似乎最易受环境空气污染物有害影响。由于他们的肺部尚未完全发育，儿童可能比成年人接触到更多的环境污染物，且不同成分的较高剂量可能在他们肺部停留更长时间。总之，空气污染物对肺功能的负面影响使儿童在其一生中面临因空气污染物诱发哮喘加重的更大风险。
本综述的目的是评估最近发表的有关空气污染对儿童哮喘影响的文献。
对于这项工作，我们检索了2006年至2009年间发表在PubMed上的文章，关键词为“室外空气污染、哮喘和儿童”。仅分析那些在PubMed上有完整版本的文章。
我们回顾了2006年至2009年间发表的研究室外空气污染对儿童哮喘影响的研究。我们总共评估了25篇文章；其中，9篇发表于2006年，3篇发表于2007年，8篇发表于2008年，5篇发表于2009年。在这25项研究中，1项是临床试验，6项是横断面研究，4项是病例对照研究（其中2项采用病例交叉设计），12项是队列前瞻性研究，2项是队列回顾性研究，随访时间从10天到7年不等。儿童年龄也各不相同，从出生到18岁。
本研究中回顾的所有研究均表明，室外空气污染会影响儿童哮喘的表现和加重。尽管这些发现很有趣，但已发表研究的局限性使得未来对空气污染对儿童哮喘影响的调查至关重要。
