Association between Outdoor Fungal Concentrations during Winter and Pulmonary Function in Children with and without Asthma

Masanari Watanabe, Hisashi Noma, Jun Kurai, Degejirihu Hantan, Naoto Burioka, Sachiko Nakamoto, Hiroyuki Sano, Jumpei Taniguchi and Eiji Shimizu
Additional contact information
Masanari Watanabe: Department of Respiratory Medicine and Rheumatology, Faculty of Medicine, Tottori University, 36-1 Nishi-Cho, Yonago 683-8504, Japan
Hisashi Noma: Department of Data Science, Institute of Statistical Mathematics, 10-3 Midori-Cho, Tachikawa, Tokyo 190-8562, Japan
Jun Kurai: Department of Respiratory Medicine and Rheumatology, Faculty of Medicine, Tottori University, 36-1 Nishi-Cho, Yonago 683-8504, Japan
Degejirihu Hantan: Department of Respiratory Medicine and Rheumatology, Faculty of Medicine, Tottori University, 36-1 Nishi-Cho, Yonago 683-8504, Japan
Naoto Burioka: Division of School of Health Science, Department of Pathobiological Science and Technology, Faculty of Medicine, Tottori University, 36-1 Nishi-Cho, Yonago 683-8504, Japan
Sachiko Nakamoto: Division of School of Health Science, Department of Pathobiological Science and Technology, Faculty of Medicine, Tottori University, 36-1 Nishi-Cho, Yonago 683-8504, Japan
Hiroyuki Sano: Department of Respiratory Medicine and Allergology, Faculty of Medicine, Kinki University, Ohnohigashi 377-2, Osakasayama 589-0014, Japan
Jumpei Taniguchi: Department of Respiratory Medicine and Rheumatology, Faculty of Medicine, Tottori University, 36-1 Nishi-Cho, Yonago 683-8504, Japan
Eiji Shimizu: Department of Respiratory Medicine and Rheumatology, Faculty of Medicine, Tottori University, 36-1 Nishi-Cho, Yonago 683-8504, Japan

IJERPH, 2016, vol. 13, issue 5, 1-11

Abstract: Outdoor fungi are important components of airborne particulate matter (PM). However, the associations between pulmonary function and outdoor fungi are less well known compared to other airborne PM constituents. The objective of this study was to investigate the association between outdoor fungi and pulmonary function in children. Morning peak expiratory flow (PEF) rates were measured daily in 339 schoolchildren (including 36 with asthma), aged 10 to 12, 2 to 27 February 2015. Airborne PM was collected on filters, using a high volume air sampler, each day during the study period. The daily concentration of outdoor fungi-associated PM was calculated using a culture-based method. A linear mixed model was used to estimate the association between PEF values and daily concentrations of outdoor fungi, and the daily levels of suspended PM (SPM) and PM ? 2.5 ?m (PM 2.5 ). An increase in the interquartile range (46.2 CFU/m 3 ) for outdoor fungal concentration led to PEF changes of ?1.18 L/min (95% confidence interval, ?2.27 to ?0.08) in all children, 1.22 L/min (?2.96 to 5.41) in children without asthma, and ?1.44 L/min (?2.57 to ?0.32) in children with asthma. Outdoor fungi showed a significant negative correlation with PM 2.5 levels (r = ?0.4, p = 0.04), but not with SPM (r = ?0.3, p = 0.10) levels. Outdoor fungi may be associated with pulmonary dysfunction in children. Furthermore, children with asthma may show greater pulmonary dysfunction than those without asthma.

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

Downloads: (external link)
https://www.mdpi.com/1660-4601/13/5/452/pdf (application/pdf)
https://www.mdpi.com/1660-4601/13/5/452/ (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:5:p:452-:d:69145

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 ().