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PEDIATRICS Vol. 111 No. 2 February 2003, pp. 284-290

Infant Susceptibility of Mortality to Air Pollution in Seoul, South Korea

Objective. Susceptibility of target populations to air pollution is an important issue, because air pollution policies and standards should be based on the susceptibilities of those at particular risk. To evaluate which age group is more susceptible to the adverse health effects of air pollution, we compared the effects of air pollution on mortality among postneonates, those aged 2 to 64 years, and those over 65 years of age.

Design. Daily counts of total and respiratory death along with daily levels of meteorological variables and air pollutants were analyzed using generalized additive Poisson regression. The relative risks (RR) of mortality for interquartile changes of the levels of particulate matter <10 µm (PM10) were calculated on the same day.

Results. For postneonates, the RR of total mortality for an interquartile change (42.9 µg/m3) in PM10 (RR: 1.142; 95% confidence interval [CI]: 1.096–1.190) was greatest among age groups. Next were the elderly over 65 years of age (RR: 1.023; 95% CI: 1.022–1.024). Regarding respiratory mortality, RR for an interquartile change of PM10 in postneonates (RR: 2.018; 95% CI: 1.784–2.283) was also greater than those in the other groups.

Conclusions. These results agree with the hypothesis that infants are most susceptible to PM10 in terms of mortality, particularly respiratory mortality.

Eun-Hee Ha, MD, PhD*, Jong-Tae Lee, PhD*, Ho Kim, PhD{ddagger}, Yun-Chul Hong, MD, PhD§, Bo-Eun Lee, MPH*, Hye-Sook Park, MD, PhD* and David C. Christiani, MD, MS||

* Department of Preventive Medicine, College of Medicine, Ewha Medical Research Center, Ewha Womans University, Seoul, South Korea
{ddagger} Department of Epidemiology and Biostatistics and Institute of Health and Environmental Sciences, School of Public Health, Seoul National University, Seoul, South Korea
§ Department of Occupational and Environmental Medicine, College of Medicine, Inha University, Incheon, Korea
|| Department of Environmental Health, Harvard School of Public Health, Boston, Massachusetts

Key Words: infant mortality • air pollution • PM10 • Seoul

Abbreviations: TSP, total suspended particle • CO, carbon monoxide • NO2, nitrogen dioxide • SO2, sulfur dioxide • O3, ozone • RR, relative risk • PM10, particles <10 µm in aerodynamic diameter • ppm, parts per million • ppb, parts per billion • CI, confidence interval

Received for publication Dec 27, 2001; Accepted Jul 1, 2002.




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