TY - JOUR T1 - Air pollution and asthma hospitalizations in children JF - European Respiratory Journal JO - Eur Respir J VL - 38 IS - Suppl 55 SP - p1131 AU - Amne Iskandar AU - Zorana J. Andersen AU - Klaus Bønnelykke AU - Klaus Andersen AU - Hans Bisgaard Y1 - 2011/09/01 UR - http://erj.ersjournals.com/content/38/Suppl_55/p1131.abstract N2 - Introduction: Short-term exposure to air pollution can trigger asthma hospitalizations in children, but it is not known which components of air pollution are most important. There is no available evidence on the particular effect of ultrafine particles (UFPs) on admissions for asthma.Aim: To study whether short-term exposure to increased air pollution levels is associated with hospitalizations for asthma in children.Hypotheses: 1) The association between asthma admissions and air pollution is stronger with UFPs than PM10, PM2.5, NOx. 2) Infants are more susceptible to the effects of exposure air pollution than older children.Method: Daily count of hospital admissions for asthma in children aged 0-18 years were extracted from Danish National Patient Registry between 2001 and 2008, from hospitals located within a 15 km radius from the central fixed urban air pollution monitor in Copenhagen. Time-stratified case-crossover design was applied and data analyzed using conditional logistic regression to estimate the effect of air pollution on asthma admissions.Results: We detected a significant association between asthma hospitalizations in children aged 0-18 years and NOx (Odds ratio: 1.11; 95% CI: 1.05-1.17), PM10 (1.07; 1.03-1.12), and PM2.5 (1.09; 1.04-1.13), and none with UFPs. Infants had higher risk of being hospitalized for asthma than older children, for all pollutants, but were not statistically significantly more susceptible.Conclusion: We find a significant association between air pollution and asthma hospitalization in children, with infants possibly most susceptible. Gases (NOx and NO2) originating from traffic showed strongest associations, while UFPs showed no effect. ER -