Effects of several air pollutants on lung function and prevalence of symptoms related with asthma and allergic diseases in primary school children

In this thesis, health effects of ambient air pollution were studied in three groups of schoolchildren living in areas (suburban, urban and urban-traffic) with different air pollution levels in Eskişehir. This study involved 1,880 students aged between 9 and 13 years from 16 public primary schools. Symptoms of three most prevalent childhood allergic diseases, namely asthma, rhinitis and eczema were determined by the International Study of Asthma and Allergies in Childhood (ISAAC) questionnaire. Two lung function tests were performed by each child for summer and winter seasons with simultaneous ambient air measurements of ozone (O3), nitrogen dioxide (NO2) and sulfur dioxide (SO2) by passive sampling. Exhaled NO measurements were also carried out for 643 children only for the winter period. Effects of air pollution on impaired lung function and allergic symptoms in schoolchildren were estimated by multivariate logistic regression analyses. In addition, exposure maps were prepared in order to evaluate air pollution exposure of Eskişehir residents. This study, in which effects of air pollution were investigated in terms of different health outcomes and pollutants, showed that ozone was the most important pollutant and effects were most observed for decline in lung function. The results of this study showed that increasing ozone concentrations may cause a sub-acute impairment in lung function of school aged children especially for girls (impaired lung function for an increase of 10 µg m-3 only for girls for the summer season evaluation [OR = 1.11 (95% CI 1.03?1.19)]). Children living in the suburban area had more prevalent impaired lung function and acute respiratory tract symptoms in relation to high ozone levels in this region. No important association was found between any of the measured air pollutants and symptoms of current wheeze, current rhinoconjunctivitis and current itchy rash.