ABSTRACT
Objective To analyze the relationship between children's respiratory health and ambient air pollution in China.Methods The studies on ambient air pollution and children's respiratory health in China published from 1980 to 2008 were collected and 12 of them were selected.Pearson correlation and linear regression analysis were used to find the correlations between levels of air pollutants and children's history prevalence of respiratory diseases and symptoms.Results Strong associations between the levels of TSP and the history prevalence of cough, long-term cough, sputum, long-term sputum, bronchitis for children were found, and 0.50%,0.12%,0.43%,0.09% and 0.51% increased respectively as per 10 ?g/m3 increased for TSP;there were significant associations between the levels of PM10 and the history prevalence of cough, sputum and bronchitis for children, and 2.64%, 2.27%,2.17% increased respectively as per 10 ?g/m3 increased for PM10.Significant associations were also found between the levels of PM2.5 and the history prevalence of cough, sputum and bronchitis for children, and 4.56%,3.49%, 3.74% increased respectively as per 10 ?g/m3 increased for PM2.5.Pearson correlation analysis indicated a significant increase of the history prevalence of wheeze for children with increase of levels of SO2;there were significant associations between the increase of the levels of SO2 and increase of the history prevalence of cough and sputum for children as the levels of SO2 lower than 0.15 mg/m3 , and 1.65% and 1.50% increased respectively as per 10 ?g/m3 increase of SO2.Significant associations between the levels of NOx lower than 0.10 mg/m3 and the history prevalence of long-term cough, long-term sputum, bronchitis for children were found, and 0.86%, 0.51% and 3.21% increased respectively as per 10 ?g/m3 increase of NOx.Furthermore, the associations between air pollutants and the history prevalence of children's respiratory health in north China were more significant.Conclusion The air pollutants in China are risk factors of children's respiratory system health, and impacts of air pollutants on children's respiratory system health in north China is more significant than that of the whole regions.