Ambient daily pollen levels in association with asthma exacerbation among children in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania.

Ambient daily pollen levels in association with asthma exacerbation among children in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania. Environ Int. 2020 Sep 19;145:106138 Authors: De Roos AJ, Kenyon CC, Zhao Y, Moore K, Melly S, Hubbard RA, Henrickson SE, Forrest CB, Diez Roux AV, Maltenfort M, Schinasi LH Abstract Pollen from trees, grasses, and weeds can trigger asthma exacerbation in sensitized individuals. However, there are gaps in knowledge about the effects, such as the relative risks from different plant taxa and threshold levels of effect. We aimed to describe the local association between pollen and asthma exacerbation among children in the City of Philadelphia, and to evaluate whether effects are modified by children's characteristics and clinical factors (e.g., child's age, race/ethnicity, comorbidities). We conducted a time-stratified case-crossover study of pediatric (age <18 years) asthma exacerbation, with cases identified through electronic health records (EHR) of the Children's Hospital of Philadelphia (CHOP) health system from March through October in the years 2011-2016. Daily pollen counts were obtained from the local National Allergy Bureau certified pollen counter. We applied conditional logistic regression to estimate odds ratios (OR) and 95% confidence intervals (CI) for the association between the pollen level (vs. none detected) and odds of asthma exacerbation, adjusting for temperature, relative humidity, and holidays. We e...
Source: Environment International - Category: Environmental Health Authors: Tags: Environ Int Source Type: research