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Published on: August 7, 2017
Early-Life Ozone Exposure and Childhood Allergic Rhinitis: Critical Exposure Windows, Exposure-Response
Tianyi Chen1, Zhiping Niu1, Dan Norback2
1Department of Environmental Health, School of Public Health, NHC Key Laboratory of Health Technology Assessment, Key Laboratory of Public Health Safety of the Ministry of Education, Fudan University, Shanghai 200032, China.
None:
Childhood allergic rhinitis (AR) is associated with ozone (O3) exposure, yet the sensitive exposure window (SEW) remains unclear. This multicenter survey of 38,176 children aged 3-6 years across 7 Chinese cities (2019-2020) estimated satellite-based individual maximum daily 8 h average O3 exposure. The SEW and its exposure-response (E-R) relationship were assessed. Doctor-diagnosed AR prevalence was 11.9%. Average O3 exposure from prenatal to AR onset ranged from 67.5 to 76.7 μg/m3. The critical SEW was identified as infancy, specifically 30-38 weeks postnatal (7.5-9.5 months). Per interquartile range (IQR) (10.1 μg/m3) increase in O3, the adjusted odds ratio was 1.29 (95% CI: 1.22-1.36), independent of PM2.5. The E-R relationship was nonlinear, J-shaped, and threshold-free. The SEW effect was stronger in southern cities and mitigated by ≥6 months of exclusive breastfeeding. In conclusion, O3 significantly increases AR risk, with 7.5-9.5 months postnatal being a critical SEW, especially in exclusive breastfeeding <6 months and southern regions.
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