Association Between Air Pollutants and Pediatric Respiratory Outpatient Visits in Zhoushan, China

OBJECTIVE: This study aimed to explore the time-series relationship between air pollutants and the number of children's respiratory outpatient visits in coastal cities. METHODS: We used time series analysis to investigate the association between air pollution levels and pediatric respiratory outpatient visits in Zhoushan city, China. The population was selected from children aged 0–18 who had been in pediatric respiratory clinics for eight consecutive years from 2014 to 2020. After describing the population and weather characteristics, a lag model was used to explore the relationship between outpatient visits and air pollution. RESULTS: We recorded annual outpatient visits for different respiratory diseases in children. The best synergy lag model found a 10 μg/m(3) increase in PM(2.5) for every 4–10% increase in the number of pediatric respiratory outpatient visits (P < 0.05). The cumulative effect of an increase in the number of daily pediatric respiratory clinics with a lag of 1–7 days was the best model. CONCLUSIONS: PM(2.5) is significantly related to the number of respiratory outpatient visits of children, which can aid in formulating policies for health resource allocation and health risk assessment strategies.