Chung Hui-Ying, Hsieh Chia-Jung, Tseng Chun-Chieh, Yiin Lih-Ming
Department of Public Health, Tzu Chi University, 701, Sec. 3, Zhongyang Rd., Hualien City 97062, Taiwan.
TCU Center for Value-Added Health Data Analysis and Application, 701, Sec. 3, Zhongyang Rd., Hualien City 97062, Taiwan.
Int J Environ Res Public Health. 2016 Feb 27;13(3):268. doi: 10.3390/ijerph13030268.
The occurrence of allergic rhinitis (AR) may be significantly influenced by air pollution. This study examined the association between the first occurrence of AR in preschool children and the pre-incident levels of air pollutants in Taiwan. We identified 9960 eligible subjects from a systematic sampling cohort database containing 400,000 insureds of the National Health Insurance from 2007 to 2011 and matched them with the environmental monitoring data from 2006 to 2011 according to the locations of their clinics. Pre-incident levels were determined using the average concentrations of air pollutants one or two weeks prior to the AR diagnoses. Logistic regression analyses were performed to determine any significant relationships between AR and specific air pollutants. The first AR incidence for Taiwanese preschool children, which increased with age, was 10.9% on average; boys appeared to have a higher percentage (14.2%) than girls (8.27%). Among the air pollutants, carbon monoxide (CO) and nitrogen oxides (NOX) were significantly related to AR after adjusting for age and gender (p < 0.05). Because both pollutants are considered to be traffic emissions, this study suggests that traffic emissions in Taiwan need to be controlled to lower the prevalence of children's AR.
过敏性鼻炎（AR）的发生可能会受到空气污染的显著影响。本研究调查了台湾学龄前儿童首次发生AR与空气污染前水平之间的关联。我们从一个系统抽样队列数据库中确定了9960名符合条件的受试者，该数据库包含2007年至2011年40万名国民健康保险参保者，并根据他们诊所的位置将其与2006年至2011年的环境监测数据进行匹配。空气污染前水平是通过AR诊断前一至两周的空气污染物平均浓度来确定的。进行逻辑回归分析以确定AR与特定空气污染物之间的任何显著关系。台湾学龄前儿童的首次AR发病率平均为10.9%，且随年龄增长而增加；男孩的发病率（14.2%）似乎高于女孩（8.27%）。在空气污染物中，在调整年龄和性别后，一氧化碳（CO）和氮氧化物（NOX）与AR显著相关（p < 0.05）。由于这两种污染物都被认为是交通排放物，本研究表明台湾需要控制交通排放物，以降低儿童AR的患病率。
