Short-term effects of air pollutant exposure on small airway dysfunction, spirometry, health-related quality of life, and inflammatory biomarkers in wildland firefighters: a pilot study

ABSTRACT

We aim to assess small airway dysfunction, spirometry, health-related quality of life (HR-QoL), and inflammatory biomarkers between the wildland firefighters and healthy controls. Lung function including impulse oscillometry (IOS) and spirometry, HR-QoL measured by the 36-Item Short Form Survey (SF-36) and St. George’s Respiratory Questionnaire (SGRQ), high sensitivity C-Reactive Protein (hsCRP), and D-dimer were collected twice in the non-pollution period and pollution period. Gaussian regression was used for comparison all parameters between two groups. The results showed that the changes in area under reactance curve between 5 Hz and resonant frequency (AX) between the non-pollution and pollution periods in wildland firefighters was significantly higher compared to healthy controls (adjusted mean difference = 0.15 kPa/L, 95%CI;0.01, 0.28, p = 0.032). Our pilot study concluded that there was short-term effect on small airway function in wildland firefighter air pollutant exposure. However, there was no effect on spirometry, HRQoL, and inflammatory biomarkers in young wildland firefighters.

Clinical Trials Registry: Study ID: TCTR20200828005

KEYWORDS:

• Firefighter
• lung function
• quality of life
• inflammatory biomarkers
• oscillometry

Acknowledgments

The authors would like to thank all subjects who kindly participated in this study. The authors acknowledge the physicians and nurses of the Division of Pulmonary, Critical Care and Allergy, Department of Internal Medicine, Faculty of Medicine, Chiang Mai University for their contribution to this trial. Finally, we acknowledge Ms. Ruth Leatherman, Research Administration Section, Faculty of Medicine, Chiang Mai University for native English proofreading.

Disclosure statement

No potential conflict of interest was reported by the author(s).

Author contributions

Conceptualization, N.N., C.P., W.C., and C.L.; Methodology, N.N., C.P., W.C., and C.L.; Software, W.C.; Validation, N.N., C.P., and W.C.; Formal Analysis, N.N., and W.C; Investigation, N.N., W.C., C.L., N.P., P.D., and W.C.; Resources, C.P., W.C., and C.L.; Data Curation, W.C. and P.D.; Writing – Original Draft Preparation, N.N., and W.C.; Writing – Review and Editing, N.N., C.P., W.C., and C.L.; Visualization, C.P., W.C., and C.L.; Supervision, C.P., and C.L.; Project Administration, C.P., and W.C.; Funding Acquisition, C.P., and W.C. All authors have read and agreed to the published version of the manuscript.

Additional information

Funding

This study was funded by the Faculty of Medicine, Chiang Mai University Research Fund under grant No. 103/2564. no funding