Is Neighborhood Green Space Protective against Associations between Child Asthma, Neighborhood Traffic Volume and Perceived Lack of Area Safety? Multilevel Analysis of 4447 Australian Children

Abstract

Heavy traffic is a source of air pollution and a safety concern with important public health implications. We investigated whether green space lowers child asthma risk by buffering the effects of heavy traffic and a lack of neighborhood safety. Multilevel models were used to analyze affirmative asthma cases in nationally representative cross-sectional data from 4447 children aged 6–7 years old in Australia. Case-finding was based upon a triangulation of affirmative responses to three questions on doctor-diagnosed asthma, asthma-related medications and illness with wheezing lasting for at least 1 week within the 12 months prior. Among children considered to be exposed to high traffic volumes and areas with 0 to 20% green space quantity, the odds ratio of affirmative asthma was 1.87 (95% CI 1.37 to 2.55). However, the association between heavy traffic and asthma was significantly lower for participants living in areas with over 40% green space coverage (odds ratio for interaction 0.32, 95% CI 0.12 to 0.84). No association between affirmative asthma and green space coverage was observed for participants not exposed to heavy traffic, nor for the area safety variable. Protecting existing and investing in new green space may help to promote child respiratory health through the buffering of traffic-related air pollution.

The Association of Knowledge, Attitudes and Access with Park Use before and after a Park-Prescription Intervention for Low-Income Families in the U.S.

“…Park prescriptions, despite these important and preliminary experimental evaluations, are still in a formative evaluation phase; there are many opportunities for research in this emerging practice. The theoretic basis for park prescriptions is derived from both observational and experimental studies that have demonstrated a health benefit to living near parks [14][15][16] or using parks [17,18]. Evidence that exposure to nature, presumably found in many parks, promotes health across the lifespan also bolsters the practice of park prescriptions [19][20][21][22].…”

The effect of residential urban greenness on allergic respiratory diseases in youth: A narrative review

“…Six studies were performed on birth cohorts; 18-23 6 had a cross-sectional design; 18,24-28 1 was an intervention study; 29 and 1 was a case-control study. 30 Twelve studies involved children of age 12 years, [19][20][21][22][23][24][25][26][27][29][30][31] and only two included children and adolescents. 18,28 Most of the studies were conducted in Europe, 19,23,24,27,30 2 in Australia, 21,25,26,28 4 in North America, 18,31 1 in Asia, 29 and 1 based on data from Swedish, Dutch, German, Australian, and Canadian birth cohorts.…”

The Study of Basic Pharmacotherapy Inhaled Corticosteroids Influence on Clinico-Functional and Gaso-Analytical Parameters in Children With Bronchial Asthma in Pulmonological Sanatorium

“…Преиму-ществами оценки FeNOex являются неинвазивный ха-рактер метода, простота повторных измерений и отно-сительно легкое использование. В то же время, требу-ются новые научные исследования, чтобы помочь кли-ницистам использовать и интерпретировать уровень фракции оксида азота в выдыхаемом воздухе (FENO) [1][2][3][4][5][6][7][8][9][10].…”