Gaseous air pollutants and asthma hospitalization of children with low household income in Vancouver, British Columbia, Canada

Associations of gaseous air pollutants (including carbon monoxide, sulfur dioxide, nitrogen dioxide, and ozone) with asthma hospitalization, stratified by sex and socioeconomic status, were examined among children 6-12 years of age in Vancouver, British Columbia, Canada, between 1987 and 1998. Relative risks for an exposure increment corresponding to the interquartile range for each gaseous air pollutant were estimated for asthma hospitalization after adjustment for weather conditions, including daily maximum and minimum temperatures as well as average relative humidity. Similar results were obtained by using locally weighted smoothing functions (LOESS) with default convergence criteria and by using natural cubic splines with a more stringent setting. Exposures to nitrogen dioxide were found to be significantly and positively associated with asthma hospitalization for males in the low socioeconomic group but not in the high socioeconomic group. For females, this same pattern of association was observed for exposures to sulfur dioxide. No significantly positive associations were found between carbon monoxide and ozone and asthma hospitalization in either low or high socioeconomic groups.