Introduction

Pollution and climate have an impact on pediatric respiratory diseases; fewstudies have assessed this in the Autonomous City of Buenos Aires.

Objective

To assess the impact of the interaction between air pollutants and climate on the Emergency Department visits for acute lowerrespiratory tract infection (ALRTI) in a children'shospital.

Methods

Ecological, time-series study with generalized additive models that included totalvisits and visits for ALRTI to the Emergency Department between 2012 and 2016. A serieswith 7-day moving averages for ALRTI visits was founded as a bias control measure. Predictors were daily levels of air pollutants (carbon monoxide, nitrous dioxide, particulatematter < 10 p) and meteorological variables (temperature, humidity). Pollutants weremeasured at three monitoring stations. Temporalvariables (day of the week, warm/cold semester) were controlled.

Results

There were 455 256 total visits; 17 298 accounted for visits for ALRTI. A correlation wasestablished only between total visits and day ofthe week (Mondays and Saturdays, more visits;Thursdays, less visits). Less visits for ALRTI were recorded in the warm semester comparedto the cold semester (relative risk = 0.23; 95 %confidence interval: 0.29-0.18; p < 0.001). One monitoring station did not show any correlation; the other two stations showed aweak correlation between carbon monoxide andparticulate matter < 10 p and visits for ALRTI.

Conclusion

The season accurately accounts forthe increased number of total visits and visits for ALRTI. Although there was a correlation betweenthe level of certain pollutants and the number ofvisits, its impact was irrelevant.

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