Effects of nitrogen dioxide exposure on the risk of eye and adnexa diseases among children in Shenzhen, China: an assessment using the generalized additive modeling approach

ABSTRACT

This study aimed to assess the relationship between nitrogen dioxide (NO₂) exposure and the risk of eye and adnexa diseases (EADs) among children in Shenzhen, China. Information about the daily number of outpatients with EADs and the concentration of air pollutants and meteorological data were collected. A generalized additive model was used to assess the effect of NO₂ exposure on the risk of EADs during outpatient visits. An increase in NO₂ level by 10 μg/m³ was related to an increase in the daily number of outpatients by 5.43% (95% confidence interval [CI]: 2.25%, 8.70%) at lag0, by 4.35% (95% CI: 1.15%, 7.66%) at lag1, and by 3.21% (95% CI: 0.05%, 6.47%) at lag3. In addition, the relationship between NO₂ exposure and the risk of dacryoadenitis was the strongest, with an estimated value of 15.0% (95% CI: 7.99%, 22.5%) at lag0. Moreover, the association between NO₂ exposure and the risk of EADs among children in Shenzhen was confirmed in this study. Therefore, the government should introduce stringent environmental policies to control air pollution and protect human health, particularly that of the vulnerable population.

KEYWORDS:

• Nitrogen dioxide
• eye and adnexa disease
• generalized additive model
• children

Acknowledgments

We express our sincere thanks to the numerous doctors and nurses of Shenzhen Children’s Hospital and Shenzhen Center for Disease Prevention and Control.

Disclosure of interest

The authors declare that they have no known competing financial interests or personal relationships that could have appeared to influence the work reported in this paper.

Additional information

Funding

This work was supported by Shenzhen Science and Technology Innovation Committee [grant numbers JCYJ20170306103652632].