Urban Tree Canopy and Asthma, Wheeze, Rhinitis, and Allergic Sensitization to Tree Pollen in a New York City Birth Cohort

There is no author summary for this article yet. Authors can add summaries to their articles on ScienceOpen to make them more accessible to a non-specialist audience.

Abstract

Background: Urban landscape elements, particularly trees, have the potential to affect airflow, air quality, and production of aeroallergens. Several large-scale urban tree planting projects have sought to promote respiratory health, yet evidence linking tree cover to human health is limited.

Objectives: We sought to investigate the association of tree canopy cover with subsequent development of childhood asthma, wheeze, rhinitis, and allergic sensitization.

Methods: Birth cohort study data were linked to detailed geographic information systems data characterizing 2001 tree canopy coverage based on LiDAR (light detection and ranging) and multispectral imagery within 0.25 km of the prenatal address. A total of 549 Dominican or African-American children born in 1998–2006 had outcome data assessed by validated questionnaire or based on IgE antibody response to specific allergens, including a tree pollen mix.

Results: Tree canopy coverage did not significantly predict outcomes at 5 years of age, but was positively associated with asthma and allergic sensitization at 7 years. Adjusted risk ratios (RRs) per standard deviation of tree canopy coverage were 1.17 for asthma (95% CI: 1.02, 1.33), 1.20 for any specific allergic sensitization (95% CI: 1.05, 1.37), and 1.43 for tree pollen allergic sensitization (95% CI: 1.19, 1.72).

Conclusions: Results did not support the hypothesized protective association of urban tree canopy coverage with asthma or allergy-related outcomes. Tree canopy cover near the prenatal address was associated with higher prevalence of allergic sensitization to tree pollen. Information was not available on sensitization to specific tree species or individual pollen exposures, and results may not be generalizable to other populations or geographic areas.

Related collections

Most cited references 72

Record: found
Abstract: found
Article: not found

Worldwide variation in prevalence of symptoms of asthma, allergic rhinoconjunctivitis, and atopic eczema: ISAAC. The International Study of Asthma and Allergies in Childhood (ISAAC) Steering Committee.

Philippa Ellwood, Neil Pearce (1998)

Systematic international comparisons of the prevalences of asthma and other allergic disorders in children are needed for better understanding of their global epidemiology, to generate new hypotheses, and to assess existing hypotheses of possible causes. We investigated worldwide prevalence of asthma, allergic rhinoconjunctivitis, and atopic eczema. We studied 463,801 children aged 13-14 years in 155 collaborating centres in 56 countries. Children self-reported, through one-page questionnaires, symptoms of these three atopic disorders. In 99 centres in 42 countries, a video asthma questionnaire was also used for 304,796 children. We found differences of between 20-fold and 60-fold between centres in the prevalence of symptoms of asthma, allergic rhinoconjunctivitis, and atopic eczema, with four-fold to 12-fold variations between the 10th and 90th percentiles for the different disorders. For asthma symptoms, the highest 12-month prevalences were from centres in the UK, Australia, New Zealand, and Republic of Ireland, followed by most centres in North, Central, and South America; the lowest prevalences were from centres in several Eastern European countries, Indonesia, Greece, China, Taiwan, Uzbekistan, India, and Ethiopia. For allergic rhinoconjunctivitis, the centres with the highest prevalences were scattered across the world. The centres with the lowest prevalences were similar to those for asthma symptoms. For atopic eczema, the highest prevalences came from scattered centres, including some from Scandinavia and Africa that were not among centres with the highest asthma prevalences; the lowest prevalence rates of atopic eczema were similar in centres, as for asthma symptoms. The variation in the prevalences of asthma, allergic rhinoconjunctivitis, and atopic-eczema symptoms is striking between different centres throughout the world. These findings will form the basis of further studies to investigate factors that potentially lead to these international patterns.

0 comments Cited 388 times – based on 0 reviews      Review now

Bookmark

Record: found
Abstract: found
Article: not found

A structural approach to selection bias.

Miguel A. Hernán, Sonia Hernandez-Diaz, James M. Robins (2004)

The term "selection bias" encompasses various biases in epidemiology. We describe examples of selection bias in case-control studies (eg, inappropriate selection of controls) and cohort studies (eg, informative censoring). We argue that the causal structure underlying the bias in each example is essentially the same: conditioning on a common effect of 2 variables, one of which is either exposure or a cause of exposure and the other is either the outcome or a cause of the outcome. This structure is shared by other biases (eg, adjustment for variables affected by prior exposure). A structural classification of bias distinguishes between biases resulting from conditioning on common effects ("selection bias") and those resulting from the existence of common causes of exposure and outcome ("confounding"). This classification also leads to a unified approach to adjust for selection bias.

0 comments Cited 283 times – based on 0 reviews      Review now

Bookmark

Record: found
Abstract: found
Article: not found

Effects of transplacental exposure to environmental pollutants on birth outcomes in a multiethnic population.

Frederica Perera, Virginia Rauh, Wei-Yann Tsai … (2003)

Inner-city, minority populations are high-risk groups for adverse birth outcomes and also are more likely to be exposed to environmental contaminants, including environmental tobacco smoke (ETS), polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbons (PAHs), and pesticides. In a sample of 263 nonsmoking African-American and Dominican women, we evaluated the effects on birth outcomes of prenatal exposure to airborne PAHs monitored during pregnancy by personal air sampling, along with ETS estimated by plasma cotinine, and an organophosphate pesticide (OP) estimated by plasma chlorpyrifos (CPF). Plasma CPF was used as a covariate because it was the most often detected in plasma and was highly correlated with other pesticides frequently detected in plasma. Among African Americans, high prenatal exposure to PAHs was associated with lower birth weight (p = 0.003) and smaller head circumference (p = 0.01) after adjusting for potential confounders. CPF was associated with decreased birth weight and birth length overall (p = 0.01 and p = 0.003, respectively) and with lower birth weight among African Americans (p = 0.04) and reduced birth length in Dominicans (p < 0.001), and was therefore included as a covariate in the model with PAH. After controlling for CPF, relationships between PAHs and birth outcomes were essentially unchanged. In this analysis, PAHs and CPF appear to be significant independent determinants of birth outcomes. Further analyses of pesticides will be carried out. Possible explanations of the failure to find a significant effect of PAHs in the Hispanic subsample are discussed. This study provides evidence that environmental pollutants at levels currently encountered in New York City adversely affect fetal development.

0 comments Cited 157 times – based on 0 reviews      Review now

Bookmark

All references

Author and article information

Journal

Journal ID (nlm-ta): Environ Health Perspect

Journal ID (iso-abbrev): Environ. Health Perspect

Journal ID (publisher-id): EHP

Title: Environmental Health Perspectives

Publisher: National Institute of Environmental Health Sciences

ISSN (Print): 0091-6765

ISSN (Electronic): 1552-9924

Publication date (Electronic): 15 January 2013

Publication date (Print): April 2013

Volume: 121

Issue: 4

Pages: 494-500

Affiliations

[1 ]Department of Epidemiology, Columbia University Mailman School of Public Health, New York, New York, USA

[2 ]Spatial Analysis Laboratory, University of Vermont, Burlington, Vermont, USA

[3 ]Division of Forestry, Horticulture and Natural Resources, New York City Department of Parks and Recreation, New York, New York, USA

[4 ]Institute for Social and Economic Research and Policy, Columbia University, New York, New York, USA

[5 ]Department of Environmental Health Sciences, Columbia University Mailman School of Public Health, New York, New York, USA

[6 ]New York City Department of Health and Mental Hygiene, New York, New York, USA

Author notes

Address correspondence to A. Rundle, 722 W 168th St., 7th floor, Room 730, New York, NY 10032 USA. Telephone: (212) 305-7619. E-mail: agr3@ 123456columbia.edu

Article

Publisher ID: ehp.1205513

DOI: 10.1289/ehp.1205513

PMC ID: 3620770

PubMed ID: 23322788

SO-VID: 28a38c31-7d94-4a75-b7ab-d093089613af

License:

This is an open-access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License, which permits unrestricted use, properly cited.

Urban Tree Canopy and Asthma, Wheeze, Rhinitis, and Allergic Sensitization to Tree Pollen in a New York City Birth Cohort

Read this article at

Abstract

Related collections

Special issue: Re-imagining the City: Urban Space in the Post-Covid City

Most cited references 72

Worldwide variation in prevalence of symptoms of asthma, allergic rhinoconjunctivitis, and atopic eczema: ISAAC. The International Study of Asthma and Allergies in Childhood (ISAAC) Steering Committee.

A structural approach to selection bias.

Effects of transplacental exposure to environmental pollutants on birth outcomes in a multiethnic population.

Author and article information

Journal

Affiliations

Author notes

Article

History

Categories

Comments

Comment on this article

Similar content 36

Cited by 76

Most referenced authors 712