Impact of urban air pollutants and noise levels over daily hospital admissions in children in Madrid: a time series analysis.
OBJECTIVE
The aim of this paper was to analyse the effects of the urban air pollutants and noise levels on daily emergency hospital admissions of children less than 10 years of age in Madrid.


METHODS
Poisson Regression Models were used to quantify the associations. Meteorological variables, influenza epidemics, pollen concentrations and trends and periodicities were used as controlling variables.


RESULTS
The main results obtained were the detected relationship (p<0.05) between emergency hospital admissions due to organic diseases and noise levels (AR=2.4%) and for PM(10) concentrations (AR=2.1%). For respiratory diseases statistically significant associations were detected for noise levels (AR=4.7%) and cold temperatures (AR=3.8%). The main association detected for causes of admissions due to bronchitis was for O(3) (AR=36.8%) and for pneumonia was for noise levels (AR=7.7%).


CONCLUSIONS
The results obtained suggest that noise level particularly is a risk factor for daily emergency hospital admissions for organic and respiratory diseases in children less than 10 years old in Madrid.
Linares
C
C
Departmento de Medicina Preventiva y Salud Pública, Facultad de Medicina, Universidad Autónoma de Madrid, C/Arzobispo Morcillo s/n, 28034, Madrid, Spain. cristina.linares@uam.es
Díaz
J
J
Tobías
A
A
De Miguel
J M
JM
Otero
A
A
D000393:Air Pollutants / Q000009:adverse effects* / Q000302:isolation & purification; D002648:Child; D002675:Child, Preschool; D004636:Emergency Service, Hospital / Q000706:statistics & numerical data*; D004781:Environmental Exposure; D006801:Humans; D009622:Noise / Q000009:adverse effects*; D016012:Poisson Distribution; D013030:Spain; D014505:Urban Population
D000393:Air Pollutants