Effect of Ambient Air Pollution on Hospital Readmissions among the Pediatric Asthma Patient Population in South Texas: A Case-Crossover Study

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 13, 1-12

Abstract: Few studies have evaluated the association between ambient air pollution and hospital readmissions among children with asthma, especially in low-income communities. This study examined the short-term effects of ambient air pollutants on hospital readmissions for pediatric asthma in South Texas. A time-stratified case-crossover study was conducted using the hospitalization data from a children’s hospital and the air pollution data, including particulate matter 2.5 (PM 2.5 ) and ozone concentrations, from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention between 2010 and 2014. A conditional logistic regression analysis was performed to investigate the association between ambient air pollution and hospital readmissions, controlling for outdoor temperature. We identified 111 pediatric asthma patients readmitted to the hospital between 2010 and 2014. The single-pollutant models showed that PM 2.5 concentration had a significant positive effect on risk for hospital readmissions (OR = 1.082, 95% CI = 1.008–1.162, p = 0.030). In the two-pollutant models, the increased risk of pediatric readmissions for asthma was significantly associated with both elevated ozone (OR = 1.023, 95% CI = 1.001–1.045, p = 0.042) and PM 2.5 concentrations (OR = 1.080, 95% CI = 1.005–1.161, p = 0.036). The effects of ambient air pollutants on hospital readmissions varied by age and season. Our findings suggest that short-term (4 days) exposure to air pollutants might increase the risk of preventable hospital readmissions for pediatric asthma patients.

Keywords: hospital readmissions; pediatric asthma; ambient air pollution; PM 2.5; ozone; South Texas; low-income communities (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 (1)

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