Association between Ambient Air Pollution and Hospital Length of Stay among Children with Asthma in South Texas

Juha Baek, Bita A. Kash, Xiaohui Xu, Mark Benden, Jon Roberts and Genny Carrillo
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Juha Baek: Department of Environmental and Occupational Health, School of Public Health, Texas A&M University, College Station, TX 77843, USA
Bita A. Kash: Center for Outcomes Research, Houston Methodist Research Institute, Houston, TX 77030, USA
Xiaohui Xu: Department of Epidemiology and Biostatistics, School of Public Health, Texas A&M University, College Station, TX 77843, USA
Mark Benden: Department of Environmental and Occupational Health, School of Public Health, Texas A&M University, College Station, TX 77843, USA
Jon Roberts: Department of Pediatric Pulmonology, Driscoll Children’s Hospital, Corpus Christi, TX 78411, USA
Genny Carrillo: Department of Environmental and Occupational Health, School of Public Health, Texas A&M University, College Station, TX 77843, USA

IJERPH, 2020, vol. 17, issue 11, 1-17

Abstract: Although hospital length of stay (LOS) has been identified as a proxy measure of healthcare expenditures in the United States, there are limited studies investigating the potentially important association between outdoor air pollution and LOS for pediatric asthma. This study aims to examine the effect of ambient air pollution on LOS among children with asthma in South Texas. It included retrospective data on 711 children aged 5–18 years old admitted for asthma to a pediatric tertiary care hospital in South Texas between 2010 and 2014. Air pollution data including particulate matter (PM 2.5 ) and ozone were collected from the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. The multivariate binomial logistic regression analyses were performed to determine the association between each air pollutant and LOS, controlling for confounders. The regression models showed the increased ozone level was significantly associated with prolonged LOS in the single- and two-pollutant models ( p < 0.05). Furthermore, in the age-stratified models, PM 2.5 was positively associated with LOS among children aged 5–11 years old ( p < 0.05). In conclusion, this study revealed a concerning association between ambient air pollution and LOS for pediatric asthma in South Texas.

Keywords: ambient air pollution; hospital length of stay; PM 2.5; ozone; pediatric asthma; South Texas (search for similar items in EconPapers)
JEL-codes: I I1 I3 Q Q5 (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Date: 2020
References: View references in EconPapers View complete reference list from CitEc
Citations: View citations in EconPapers (2)

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