Improved Air Quality and Asthma Incidence from School Age to Young Adulthood: A Population-based Prospective Cohort Study.

Rationale: The benefits of improved air quality on asthma remain understudied.

Objectives

Our aim was to investigate associations of changes in ambient air pollution with incident asthma from school age until young adulthood in an area with mostly low air pollution levels.

Methods

Participants in the BAMSE (Swedish abbreviation for Children, Allergy, Environment, Stockholm, Epidemiology) birth cohort from Stockholm without asthma before the 8-year follow-up were included (N = 2,371). We estimated the association of change in individual-level air pollutant exposure (particulate matter with an aerodynamic diameter ≤ 2.5 μm [PM2.5] and ≤ 10 μm [PM10], black carbon [BC], and nitrogen oxides [NOx]) from the first year of life to the 8-year follow-up with asthma incidence from the 8-year until the 24-year follow-up. Multipollutant trajectories were identified using the group-based multivariate trajectory model. We also used parametric G-computation to quantify the asthma incidence under different hypothetical interventions regarding air pollution levels.

Results

Air pollution levels at residency decreased during the period, with median reductions of 5.6% for PM2.5, 3.1% for PM10, 5.9% for BC, and 26.8% for NOx. A total of 395 incident asthma cases were identified from the 8-year until the 24-year follow-up. The odds ratio for asthma was 0.89 (95% confidence interval [CI], 0.80-0.99) for each interquartile range reduction in PM2.5 (equal to 8.1% reduction). Associations appeared less clear for PM10, BC, and NOx. Five multipollutant trajectories were identified; the largest reduction trajectory displayed the lowest odds of asthma (odds ratio, 0.55; 95% CI, 0.31-0.98) compared with the lowest reduction trajectory. If the PM2.5 exposure had not declined up to the 8-year follow-up, the hypothetical asthma incidence was estimated to have been 10.9% higher (95% CI, 0.8-20.8%).

Conclusions

A decrease in PM2.5 levels during childhood was associated with a lower risk of incident asthma from school age to young adulthood in an area with relatively low air pollution levels, suggesting broad respiratory health benefits from improved air quality.