Air Pollution Effect on Daily Outpatient Visits of Pediatric Respiratory System in Maternal and Children Hospital

Objectives To explore the effect of the air pollution on the outpatient visits of pediatric respiratory system in the mater children's hospital.

Methods Data of air pollution, meteorological observation and the pediatric outpatient visits of a maternal and children hospital in Yinchuan from 2014 to 2017 were collected to describe the pollution trends of Yinchuan. Generalized Additive Model based on Poisson regression was employed to analyze the exposure-response relationship between air pollution and the pediatric outpatient visits of the mater children's hospital.

Results In 2014 to 2017, the annual average concentration of PM₁₀, PM_2.5, and NO₂ was higher than the concentration limit of the Standard of Environmental Air Quality (GB 3095-2012). By controlling temperature, relative humidity, temporal trends and weekly effects, the time series analysis showed that a 10 μg/m³ increase of PM_2.5, PM₁₀, SO₂ or NO₂ has a lagging effect on the pediatric outpatient visits.

Conclusions Air pollution affects the outpatient visits of pediatric respiratory system in maternal and children hospital, especially the air pollutants PM₁₀, NO₂ and SO₂.