Examining Associations between Childhood Asthma and Traffic Flow Using a Geographic Information System

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http://ehpnet1.niehs.nih.gov/docs/1999/107p761-767english/abstract.html

Children's Health Articles

Environmental Health Perspectives Volume 107, Number 9, September 1999

[ Citation in PubMed ] [ Related Articles ]

Examining Associations between Childhood Asthma and Traffic Flow Using a

Geographic Information System

English,1 Neutra,2 Scalf,3 Moira Sullivan,1 Lance

Waller,3 and Li Zhu3

1Impact Assessment, Inc., Oakland, California, USA

2Division of Environmental and Occupational Disease Control, California

Department of Health Services, Oakland, California, USA

3University of Minnesota, School of Public Health, Minneapolis, Minnesota,

USA

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Abstract

Using geographic information systems (GIS) and routinely collected data, we

explored whether childhood residence near busy roads was associated with

asthma in a low-income population in San Diego County, California. We

examined the locations of residences of 5,996 children 14 years of age who

were diagnosed with asthma in 1993 and compared them to a random control

series of nonrespiratory diagnoses (n = 2,284). Locations of the children's

residences were linked to traffic count data at streets within 550 ft. We

also examined the number of medical care visits in 1993 for children with

asthma to determine if the number of visits was related to traffic flow.

Analysis of the distribution of cases and controls by quintiles and by the

90th, 95th, and 99th percentiles of traffic flow at the highest traffic

street, nearest street, and total of all streets within a 550-ft buffer

region did not show any significantly elevated odds ratios. However, among

cases, those residing near high traffic flows (measured at the nearest

street) were more likely than those residing near lower traffic flows to

have two or more medical care visits for asthma than to have only one visit

for asthma during the year. The results of this exploratory study suggest

that higher traffic flows may be related to an increase in repeated medical

visits for asthmatic children. Repeated exposure to particulate matter and

other air pollutants from traffic exhaust may aggravate asthmatic symptoms

in individuals already diagnosed with asthma. Key words: case-control,

childhood asthma, geographic information system, GIS, Medi-Cal, traffic.

Environ Health Perspect 107:761-767 (1999). [Online 10 August 1999]

http://ehpnet1.niehs.nih.gov/docs/1999/107p761-767english/abstract.html

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Address correspondence to P. English, Impact Assessment, Inc., 1515 Clay

Street, Suite 1700, Oakland, CA 94612 USA. Telephone: (510) 622-4508. Fax:

(510) 622-4505. E-mail: popn01@...

We acknowledge the San Diego Association of Governments and the Medical Care

Statistics Section, California Department of Health Services, for the use of

their data. E. Elkin, L. Gerstenfeld, M. Lipsett, T. Saunders, D. , and

J. Von Behren made helpful comments. We thank R. Pearson and R. Gunier for

help with pollution dispersion modeling.

Support was provided by grants R01-ES07990-01 and 1-R01-ES07750 from the

National Institute of Environmental Health Sciences.

The contents of this paper are solely the responsibility of the authors and

do not necessarily represent the official views of the National Institute of

Environmental Health Sciences or the National Institutes of Health.