The Lag Structure and the General Effect of Ozone Exposure on Pediatric Respiratory Morbidity

José Fraga, Anabela Botelho, Aida Sá, Margarida Costa and Márcia Quaresma
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José Fraga: Department of Pediatrics at Centro Hospitalar de Trás-os-Montes e Alto Douro, Avenida da Noruega-Lordelo, Vila Real 5000-508, Portugal
Anabela Botelho: University of Minho and NIMA, Campus de Gualtar, Braga 4710-057, Portugal
Aida Sá: Department of Pediatrics at Centro Hospitalar de Trás-os-Montes e Alto Douro, Avenida da Noruega-Lordelo, Vila Real 5000-508, Portugal
Margarida Costa: Department of Pediatrics at Centro Hospitalar de Trás-os-Montes e Alto Douro, Avenida da Noruega-Lordelo, Vila Real 5000-508, Portugal
Márcia Quaresma: Department of Pediatrics at Centro Hospitalar de Trás-os-Montes e Alto Douro, Avenida da Noruega-Lordelo, Vila Real 5000-508, Portugal

IJERPH, 2011, vol. 8, issue 10, 1-12

Abstract: Up to now no study has investigated the lag structure of children’s respiratory morbidity due to surface ozone. In the present study, we investigate the lag structure and the general effect of surface ozone exposure on children and adolescents’ respiratory morbidity using data from a particularly well suited area in southern Europe to assess the health effects of surface ozone. The effects of surface ozone are estimated using the recently developed distributed lag non-linear models, allowing for a relatively long timescale, while controlling for weather effects, a range of other air pollutants, and long and short term patterns. The public health significance of the estimated effects is higher than has been previously reported in the literature, providing evidence contrary to the conjecture that the surface ozone-morbidity association is mainly due to short-term harvesting. In fact, our data analysis reveals that the effects of surface ozone at medium and long timescales (harvesting-resistant) are substantially larger than the effects at shorter timescales (harvesting-prone), a finding that is consistent with all children and adolescents being affected by high surface ozone concentrations, and not just the very frail.

Keywords: public health; respiratory morbidity; children; surface ozone; distributed lag; non-linear models; delayed effects (search for similar items in EconPapers)
JEL-codes: I I1 I3 Q Q5 (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Date: 2011
References: View complete reference list from CitEc
Citations: View citations in EconPapers (1)

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