Ambient Air Pollution and Kawasaki Disease in Korean Children: A Study of the National Health Insurance Claim Data

BACKGROUND: Kawasaki disease (KD) is a systemic vasculitis of unknown etiology that primarily affects children under 5 years of age. Some researchers suggested a potential triggering effect of air pollution on KD, but the findings are inconsistent and limited by small sample size. We investigated the association between ambient air pollution and KD among the population of South Korea younger than 5 years using the National Health Insurance claim data between 2007 and 2019. METHODS AND RESULTS: We obtained the data regarding particulate matter ≤10 or 2.5 µm in diameter, nitrogen dioxide, sulfur dioxide, carbon monoxide, and ozone from 235 regulatory monitoring stations. Using a time‐stratified case‐crossover design, we performed conditional logistic regression to estimate odds ratios (OR) of KD according to interquartile range increases in each air pollutant concentration on the day of fever onset after adjusting for temperature and relative humidity. We identified 51 486 children treated for KD during the study period. An interquartile range increase (14.67 μg/m(3)) of particulate matter ≤2.5 µm was positively associated with KD at lag 1 (OR, 1.016; 95% CI, 1.004–1.029). An interquartile range increase (2.79 ppb) of sulfur dioxide concentration was associated with KD at all lag days (OR, 1.018; 95% CI, 1.002–1.034 at lag 0; OR, 1.022; 95% CI, 1.005–1.038 at lag 1; OR, 1.017; 95% CI, 1.001–1.033 at lag 2). Results were qualitatively similar in the second scenario of different fever onset, 2‐pollutant model and sensitivity analyses. CONCLUSIONS: In a KD‐focused national cohort of children, exposure to particulate matter ≤2.5 µm and sulfur dioxide was positively associated with the risk of KD. This finding supports the triggering role of ambient air pollution in the development of KD.