10 research outputs found

    Synergistic Effects of Traffic-Related Air Pollution and Exposure to Violence on Urban Asthma Etiology

    Get PDF
    Background: Disproportionate life stress and consequent physiologic alteration (i.e., immune dysregulation) has been proposed as a major pathway linking socioeconomic position, environmental exposures, and health disparities. Asthma, for example, disproportionately affects lower-income urban communities, where air pollution and social stressors may be elevated. Objectives: We aimed to examine the role of exposure to violence (ETV), as a chronic stressor, in altering susceptibility to traffic-related air pollution in asthma etiology. Methods: We developed geographic information systems (GIS)–based models to retrospectively estimate residential exposures to traffic-related pollution for 413 children in a community-based pregnancy cohort, recruited in East Boston, Massachusetts, between 1987 and 1993, using monthly nitrogen dioxide measurements for 13 sites over 18 years. We merged pollution estimates with questionnaire data on lifetime ETV and examined the effects of both on childhood asthma etiology. Results: Correcting for potential confounders, we found an elevated risk of asthma with a 1-SD (4.3 ppb) increase in NO2 exposure solely among children with above-median ETV [odds ratio (OR) = 1.63; 95% confidence interval (CI), 1.14–2.33)]. Among children always living in the same community, with lesser exposure measurement error, this association was magnified (OR = 2.40; 95% CI, 1.48–3.88). Of multiple exposure periods, year-of-diagnosis NO2_2 was most predictive of asthma outcomes. Conclusions: We found an association between traffic-related air pollution and asthma solely among urban children exposed to violence. Future studies should consider socially patterned susceptibility, common spatial distributions of social and physical environmental factors, and potential synergies among these. Prospective assessment of physical and social exposures may help determine causal pathways and critical exposure periods

    Effect of traffic pollution on respiratory and allergic disease in adults: cross-sectional and longitudinal analyses

    Get PDF
    Background: Epidemiological research into the role of traffic pollution on chronic respiratory and allergic disease has focused primarily on children. Studies in adults, in particular those based on objective outcomes such as bronchial hyperresponsiveness, skin sensitisation, and lung function, are limited. Methods: We have used an existing cohort of 2644 adults aged 18-70 living in Nottingham, UK, for whom baseline health and demographic data were collected in 1991 and computed two markers of exposure to traffic: distance between the home and nearest main road and modelled outdoor nitrogen dioxide (NO2) concentration at the home location. Using multiple regression techniques, we analysed cross-sectional associations with bronchial hyperresponsiveness, FEV1, spirometry-defined COPD, skin test positivity, total IgE and questionnaire-reported wheeze, asthma, eczema and hayfever in 2599 subjects, and longitudinal associations with decline in FEV1 in 1329 subjects followed-up nine years later in 2000. Results: There were no significant cross-sectional associations between home proximity to the roadside or NO2 level on any of the outcomes studied (adjusted OR of bronchial hyperresponsiveness in relation to living ≤150m vs >150m from a road = 0.92, 95% CI 0.68 to 1.24). Furthermore, neither exposure was associated with a significantly greater decline in FEV1 over time (adjusted mean difference in FEV1 for living ≤150m vs >150m of a road = 10.03ml, 95% CI, -33.98 to 54.04). Conclusions: This study found no evidence to suggest that living in close proximity to traffic is a major determinant of asthma, allergic disease or COPD in adults
    corecore