Use of a Robotic Sampler (PIPER) for Evaluation of Particulate Matter Exposure and Eczema in Preschoolers

Lokesh Shah, Gediminas Mainelis, Maya Ramagopal, Kathleen Black and Stuart L. Shalat
Additional contact information
Lokesh Shah: Rutgers-Robert Wood Johnson Medical School, New Brunswick, NJ 08901, USA
Gediminas Mainelis: Department of Environmental Sciences, Rutgers The State University of New Jersey, New Brunswick, NJ 08901, USA
Maya Ramagopal: Department of Pediatrics, Rutgers-Robert Wood Johnson Medical School, New Brunswick, NJ 08903, USA
Kathleen Black: Environmental and Occupational Health Sciences Institute, Piscataway, NJ 08854, USA
Stuart L. Shalat: Division of Environmental Health, School of Public Health, Georgia State University, Atlanta, GA 30303, USA

IJERPH, 2016, vol. 13, issue 2, 1-7

Abstract: While the association of eczema with asthma is well recognized, little research has focused on the potential role of inhalable exposures and eczema. While indoor air quality is important in the development of respiratory disease as children in the U.S. spend the majority of their time indoors, relatively little research has focused on correlated non-respiratory conditions. This study examined the relationship between particulate matter (PM) exposures in preschool age children and major correlates of asthma, such as wheeze and eczema. Air sampling was carried out using a robotic (PIPER) child-sampling surrogate. This study enrolled 128 participants, 57 male and 71 female children. Ages ranged from 3 to 58 months with the mean age of 29.3 months. A comparison of subjects with and without eczema showed a difference in the natural log (ln) of PM collected from the PIPER air sampling ( p = 0.049). PIPER’s sampling observed an association between the ln PM concentrations and eczema, but not an association with wheezing history in pre-school children. Our findings are consistent with the hypothesis of the role of the microenvironment in mediating atopic dermatitis, which is one of the predictors of persistent asthma. Our findings also support the use of PIPER in its ability to model and sample the microenvironment of young children.

Keywords: eczema; asthma; children; robot; particulate matter (search for similar items in EconPapers)
JEL-codes: I I1 I3 Q Q5 (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Date: 2016
References: View complete reference list from CitEc
Citations: View citations in EconPapers (1)

Downloads: (external link)
https://www.mdpi.com/1660-4601/13/2/242/pdf (application/pdf)
https://www.mdpi.com/1660-4601/13/2/242/ (text/html)

Related works:
This item may be available elsewhere in EconPapers: Search for items with the same title.

Export reference: BibTeX RIS (EndNote, ProCite, RefMan) HTML/Text

Persistent link: https://EconPapers.repec.org/RePEc:gam:jijerp:v:13:y:2016:i:2:p:242-:d:64135

Access Statistics for this article

IJERPH is currently edited by Ms. Jenna Liu

More articles in IJERPH from MDPI
Bibliographic data for series maintained by MDPI Indexing Manager ().