title: Aerosol optical depth as a measure of particulate exposure using imputed censored data, and relationship with childhood asthma hospital admissions for 2004 in athens, Greece.
abstract: An understanding of human health implications from atmosphere exposure is a priority in both the geographic and the public health domains. The unique properties of geographic tools for remote sensing of the atmosphere offer a distinct ability to characterize and model aerosols in the urban atmosphere for evaluation of impacts on health. Asthma, as a manifestation of upper respiratory disease prevalence, is a good example of the potential interface of geographic and public health interests. The current study focused on Athens, Greece during the year of 2004 and (1) demonstrates a systemized process for aligning data obtained from satellite aerosol optical depth (AOD) with geographic location and time, (2) evaluates the ability to apply imputation methods to censored data, and (3) explores whether AOD data can be used satisfactorily to investigate the association between AOD and health impacts using an example of hospital admission for childhood asthma. This work demonstrates the ability to apply remote sensing data in the evaluation of health outcomes, that the alignment process for remote sensing data is readily feasible, and that missing data can be imputed with a sufficient degree of reliability to develop complete datasets. Individual variables demonstrated small but significant effect levels on hospital admission of children for AOD, nitrogen oxides (NOx), relative humidity (rH), temperature, smoke, and inversely for ozone. However, when applying a multivari-able model, an association with asthma hospital admissions and air quality could not be demonstrated. This work is promising and will be expanded to include additional years.
authors.affiliation: Department of Social and Behavioral Sciences, Harris Stowe State University, St Louis, MO, USA.
authors.forename: Gary
authors.initials: G
authors.lastname: Higgs
authors.affiliation: Department of Environmental and Occupational Health Sciences, School of Public Health, University of North Texas Health Science Center, Fort Worth, TX, USA.
authors.forename: David A
authors.initials: DA
authors.lastname: Sterling
authors.affiliation: Department of Biostatistics and Epidemiology, School of Public Health, University of North Texas Health Science Center, Fort Worth, TX, USA.
authors.forename: Subhash
authors.initials: S
authors.lastname: Aryal
authors.affiliation: Department of Biostatistics and Epidemiology, School of Public Health, University of North Texas Health Science Center, Fort Worth, TX, USA.
authors.forename: Abhilash
authors.initials: A
authors.lastname: Vemulapalli
authors.affiliation: Pediatric Respiratory and Allergy Unit, 3rd Department of Pediatrics, Athens University, University Hospital "Attikon", Haidari, Athens, Greece.
authors.forename: Kostas N
authors.initials: KN
authors.lastname: Priftis
authors.affiliation: Institute for Astronomy, Astrophysics, Space Applications and Remote Sensing, National Observatory of Athens, Greece.
authors.forename: Nicolas I
authors.initials: NI
authors.lastname: Sifakis
keywords: AOD; Aerosol optical depth; childhood asthma; particulate exposure