
Researchers at the Children’s Hospital at Montefiore (CHAM) in Bronx, New York, released the results of a first-of-its-kind study linking poor air quality with longer hospitalizations for children who have asthma.
According to the study, this occurs when there is a greater amount of particulate matter (tiny pieces of solids or liquids and ozone) in the air. The study was published in the Journal of Asthma, just after Canadian wildfires blanketed New York City with smoke in June. The study led by pediatric hospitalist, Elissa B. Gross, DO, MPH, assessed the medical records of more than 1,700 children between the ages of ages of 2 and 18, admitted to CHAM between 2017 and 2019 and found that the mean length of stay increased up to 10% for every 10 micrograms of pollutants per cubic meter of air. This equated to longer length of stay during times when air quality was poorer.
"Our findings suggest that children with asthma may experience more severe exacerbations and remain hospitalized longer when they are exposed to a higher level of pollutants in the air," said Dr. Gross, who is also associate professor of Clinical Pediatrics at Albert Einstein College of Medicine. "Hospitalizations are very disruptive to a child and their family, so it would be beneficial for everyone if there were more effective environmental policies that could help to prevent high levels of pollution so asthma exacerbations and chronic illness could be lessened for Bronx children."
Asthma is a leading cause of pediatric hospitalizations in the United States. In the Bronx, asthma prevalence in children is 17%, compared to 5.8% nationally. There are many factors that impact the condition, including socioeconomic status, environmental triggers found in homes, such as mold and pests and air pollution. This factor disproportionately affects Bronx residents due to the many surrounding highways and a higher-than-average number of federal air quality violations than other boroughs.
The study found that children with asthma, whose developing lungs are especially vulnerable to air pollutants, had longer hospitalizations when particulate matter in the air was high on the day of their hospital admission and when ozone levels were elevated the day prior to hospitalization.