Association between the Ratio of FEV 1 to FVC and the Exposure Level to Air Pollution in Neversmoking Adult Refractory Asthmatics Using Data Clustered by Patient in the Soonchunhyang Asthma Cohort Database

Sol Yu, Sujung Park, Choon-Sik Park and Sungroul Kim
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Sol Yu: Department of Environmental Sciences, Soonchunhyang University, Asan 31538, Korea
Sujung Park: Department of Environmental Sciences, Soonchunhyang University, Asan 31538, Korea
Choon-Sik Park: Department of Internal Medicine, Soonchunhyang Bocheon Hospital, Bucheon 22972, Korea
Sungroul Kim: Department of Environmental Sciences, Soonchunhyang University, Asan 31538, Korea

IJERPH, 2018, vol. 15, issue 11, 1-11

Abstract: Using real-world cases, asthma-related clinical data were clustered by patient; 5% of all asthmatics were found to have refractory asthma (RA) with a relatively low lung function (forced expiratory volume in 1 s/forced vital capacity (FEV 1 /FVC) less than 80%). Using a multilevel study design for clustered spirometry data observed between 2005 and 2014, we evaluated the association between changes in the ratio of FEV 1 to FVC and variations in acute exposure to air pollution. We analyzed 2310 episodes of RA from 214 neversmoking patients. In spring, a 1 µg/m³ increase in concentration of particles ≤10 μm (PM 10 ) on Lag 1 significantly reduced the ratio by 0.4% (95% confidence interval (CI): 0.1–0.7%) after adjusting for sex, age, body mass index (BMI), and total Immunoglobulin E (IgE) level. Unit (ppb) increase in SO 2 concentration on Lag 3 and 4 in fall and on Lag 6 in winter significantly reduced the ratio by 2 to 3% ( p < 0.05). We found that acute exposure to PM 10 in spring or SO 2 in fall or winter were positively associated with lung function drop indicating necessity of control strategies of target air pollutant source by season to protect susceptible population.

Keywords: air pollution; refractory asthma; spirometry; FEV 1; FVC (search for similar items in EconPapers)
JEL-codes: I I1 I3 Q Q5 (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Date: 2018
References: View references in EconPapers View complete reference list from CitEc
Citations: View citations in EconPapers (2)

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