The Association between Ambient Air Pollution and Allergic Rhinitis: Further Epidemiological Evidence from Changchun, Northeastern China

Abstract

With the continuous rapid urbanization process over the last three decades, outdoors air pollution has become a progressively more serious public health hazard in China. To investigate the possible associations, lag effects and seasonal differences of urban air quality on respiratory health (allergic rhinitis) in Changchun, a city in Northeastern China, we carried out a time-series analysis of the incidents of allergic rhinitis (AR) from 2013 to 2015. Environmental monitoring showed that PM _2.5 and PM ₁₀ were the major air pollutants in Changchun, followed by SO ₂, NO ₂ and O ₃. The results also demonstrated that the daily concentrations of air pollutants had obvious seasonal differences. PM ₁₀ had higher daily mean concentrations in spring (May, dust storms), autumn (October, straw burning) and winter (November to April, coal burning). The mean daily number of outpatient AR visits in the warm season was higher than in the cold season. The prevalence of allergic rhinitis was significantly associated with PM _2.5, PM ₁₀, SO ₂ and NO ₂, and the increased mobility was 10.2% (95% CI, 5.5%–15.1%), 4.9% (95% CI, 0.8%–9.2%), 8.5% (95% CI, −1.8%–19.8%) and 11.1% (95% CI, 5.8%–16.5%) for exposure to each 1-Standard Deviation (1-SD) increase of pollutant, respectively. Weakly or no significant associations were observed for CO and O ₃. As for lag effects, the highest Relative Risks (RRs) of AR from SO ₂, NO ₂, PM ₁₀ and PM _2.5 were on the same day, and the highest RR from CO was on day 4 (L4). The results also indicated that the concentration of air pollutants might contribute to the development of AR. To summarize, this study provides further evidence of the significant association between ambient particulate pollutants (PM _2.5 and PM ₁₀, which are usually present in high concentrations) and the prevalence of respiratory effects (allergic rhinitis) in the city of Changchun, located in Northeastern China. Environmental control and public health strategies should be enforced to address this increasingly challenging problem.