Institute and Clinic for Occupational, Social and Environmental Medicine, University Hospital, Ludwig Maximilian University, Munich, Germany.
Institute for Medical Information Processing, Biometry and Epidemiology, Ludwig Maximilian University, Munich, Germany.
Environ Res. 2024 Dec 15;263(Pt 1):120068. doi: 10.1016/j.envres.2024.120068. Epub 2024 Sep 27.
Studies on greenspace and lung function in adults produced divergent results. Some of the adverse findings could be due to long-term exposure to allergenic tree pollen. We investigated whether having more birch trees or more allergenic trees around home is related to worse lung function and whether these exposures confound the association between greenspace and lung function.
The analytic sample consisted of 874 adults aged 20-44 years at baseline from the German study centers, Erfurt and Hamburg, of the ECRHS cohort study. Spirometric lung function was measured in 1991/92, 2000/01, and 2011/12. We counted trees based on tree registries and classified them into allergenic and non-allergenic. We assessed exposure to greenspace with the normalized difference vegetation index (NDVI), tree cover density, and total number of trees in a 300 m buffer around home. Linear mixed models were used.
The forced expiratory volume in 1 s (FEV) and the forced vital capacity (FVC) were decreased in the presence of more birch trees after adjusting for confounders and co-exposures. For every 10 additional birch trees in a 300 m buffer around home, the average change in FEV was -27.6 mL (95% confidence interval (CI): [-58.7, 3.5]). For FVC the average change was -28.2 mL (95% CI: [-62.0, 5.6]). No consistent associations were found for allergenic trees, total trees, tree cover density, or NDVI. Unlike other associations, those of birch trees with FEV and FVC were not moderated by allergic sensitization to birch pollen, history of asthma symptoms or nasal allergies including hay fever, ozone, NO, or age.
Living close to birch trees had an adverse long-term association with lung function. That tree registries were limited to street trees prevented us from answering the question of a potential confounding of greenspace effects by allergenic neighborhood trees.
成人的绿地与肺功能研究结果存在差异。一些不利的发现可能是由于长期接触致敏性树木花粉。我们调查了家中周围的桦树或致敏性树木较多是否与肺功能下降有关，以及这些暴露是否会混淆绿地与肺功能之间的关系。
分析样本包括来自德国 ECRHS 队列研究的厄福特和汉堡研究中心的 874 名 20-44 岁的成年人。1991/92 年、2000/01 年和 2011/12 年进行了肺功能测量。我们根据树木登记册计算树木数量，并将其分为致敏性和非致敏性。我们使用归一化差异植被指数 (NDVI)、树木覆盖密度和家周围 300 米缓冲区内的树木总数来评估绿地暴露情况。使用线性混合模型。
在调整了混杂因素和共同暴露因素后，家中周围 300 米缓冲区内桦树数量增加与用力呼气量（FEV）和用力肺活量（FVC）下降有关。在家周围 300 米缓冲区内每增加 10 棵额外的桦树，FEV 的平均变化为-27.6 mL（95%置信区间 (CI)：[-58.7, 3.5]）。对于 FVC，平均变化为-28.2 mL（95% CI：[-62.0, 5.6]）。对于致敏性树木、总数、树木覆盖密度或 NDVI，未发现一致的关联。与其他关联不同，桦树与 FEV 和 FVC 的关联不受桦树花粉过敏、哮喘症状或鼻过敏（包括花粉热）、臭氧、NO 或年龄的调节。
靠近桦树生活与肺功能长期不良有关。由于树木登记册仅限于街道树木，因此我们无法回答绿地效应可能因致敏性邻域树木而产生混杂的问题。
