Ambient Air Quality and Fatal Asthma Exacerbations among Children in North Carolina.

Background: Little is known about the role of air quality in fatal asthma exacerbations among children.

Methods: We collected information about 80 deaths that occurred in North Carolina from 2001 through 2016, among children aged 5-17 years, with asthma identified as the primary cause of death. We linked information about each death with county-level estimates of particulate matter ≤2.5 µm (PM2.5) and ozone (O3). Using the linked data, we conducted a case-crossover analysis of associations between PM2.5 and O3 lagged by 3-5 days with the odds of fatal asthma exacerbations.

Results: In the highest tertile of PM2.5 lag(3-5), the odds of a fatal exacerbation of asthma were more than twice the odds in the lowest tertile (odds ratio = 2.2; 95% confidence interval = 1.1, 4.6).

Conclusion: These findings from North Carolina provide evidence to support the hypothesis that ambient air pollution increases the risk of fatal exacerbations of asthma among children.