Proximity to Industrial Food Animal Production and Asthma Exacerbations in Pennsylvania, 2005–2012

Sara G. Rasmussen, Joan A. Casey, Karen Bandeen-Roche and Brian S. Schwartz
Additional contact information
Sara G. Rasmussen: Department of Environmental Health and Engineering, Johns Hopkins Bloomberg School of Public Health, Baltimore, MD 21205, USA
Joan A. Casey: Department of Environmental Science, Policy & Management, University of California, Berkeley, Berkeley, CA 94720, USA
Karen Bandeen-Roche: Department of Biostatistics, Johns Hopkins Bloomberg School of Public Health, Baltimore, MD 21205, USA
Brian S. Schwartz: Department of Environmental Health and Engineering, Johns Hopkins Bloomberg School of Public Health, Baltimore, MD 21205, USA

IJERPH, 2017, vol. 14, issue 4, 1-9

Abstract: The research on industrial food animal production (IFAP) and asthma exacerbations in the United States has relied on small sample sizes and/or self-reported outcomes. We assessed associations of proximity to large-scale and densely stocked swine and dairy/veal IFAP with three types of asthma exacerbations: hospitalizations, emergency encounters, and oral corticosteroid (OCS) medication orders from Geisinger Clinic in Pennsylvania. We used a diagnosis code ( International Classification of Diseases, 9th Revision, Clinical Modification code 493.x) and medication orders from electronic health records to identify these exacerbations among asthma patients ( n = 35,269) from 2005–2012. We compared residential proximity to swine or dairy/veal IFAP (dichotomized as <3 miles (4.8 km) or ?3 miles) among asthma patients with and without exacerbations and estimated odds ratios using multilevel logistic regression. In adjusted models, proximity to IFAP was associated (odds ratio (95% confidence interval)) with OCS orders (1.11 (1.04–1.19)) and hospitalizations (1.29 (1.15–1.46)), but not emergency encounters (1.12 (0.91–1.37)). This study contributes to growing evidence that IFAP may impact health, in this case clinically-documented asthma exacerbations. No prior study has evaluated the association of IFAP and clinically-documented asthma exacerbations in the United States.

Keywords: asthma; asthma exacerbation; concentrated animal feeding operation (CAFO) (search for similar items in EconPapers)
JEL-codes: I I1 I3 Q Q5 (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Date: 2017
References: View complete reference list from CitEc
Citations:

Downloads: (external link)
https://www.mdpi.com/1660-4601/14/4/362/pdf (application/pdf)
https://www.mdpi.com/1660-4601/14/4/362/ (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:14:y:2017:i:4:p:362-:d:94644

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 ().