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American Journal of Epidemiology Advance Access published online on October 10, 2006
American Journal of Epidemiology, doi:10.1093/aje/kwj338
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American Journal of Epidemiology Copyright © 2006 by the Johns Hopkins Bloomberg School of Public Health All rights reserved; printed in U.S.A.
Received September 27, 2005
Accepted May 8, 2006

ORIGINAL CONTRIBUTIONS

Living near Main Streets and Respiratory Symptoms in Adults

Lucy Bayer-Oglesby 1 *, Christian Schindler 1, Marianne E. Hazenkamp-von Arx 1, Charlotte Braun-Fahrländer 1, Dirk Keidel 1, Regula Rapp 1, Nino Künzli 2, Otto Braendli 3, Luc Burdet 4, L-J. Sally Liu 1, Philippe Leuenberger 5, and Ursula Ackermann-Liebrich 1, the SAPALDIA Team

1 Institute of Social and Preventive Medicine, University of Basel, Basel, Switzerland
2 Keck School of Medicine, University of Southern California, Los Angeles, CA
3 Zuercher Hoehenklinik, Wald, Switzerland
4 Hôpital Intercantonal de la Broye, Payerne, Switzerland
5 Centre Hospitalier Universitaire, Lausanne, Switzerland

* To whom correspondence should be addressed.
Lucy Bayer-Oglesby, E-mail: lucy.oglesby{at}unibas.ch


  Abstract

The Swiss Cohort Study on Air Pollution and Lung Diseases in Adults (SAPALDIA), conducted in 1991 (SAPALDIA 1) in eight areas among 9,651 randomly selected adults aged 18-60 years, reported associations among the prevalence of respiratory symptoms, nitrogen dioxide, and particles with an aerodynamic diameter of less than 10 µg/m3. Later, 8,047 subjects reenrolled in 2002 (SAPALDIA 2). The effects of individually assigned traffic exposures on reported respiratory symptoms were estimated, while controlling for socioeconomic and exposure- and health-related factors. The risk of attacks of breathlessness increased for all subjects by 13% (95% confidence interval: 3, 24) per 500-m increment in the length of main street segments within 200 m of the home and decreased in never smokers by 12% (95% confidence interval: 0, 22) per 100-m increment in distance from home to a main street. Living within 20 m of a main street increased the risks of regular phlegm by 15% (95% confidence interval: 0, 31) and wheezing with breathing problems by 34% (95% confidence interval: 0, 79) in never smokers. In 2002, the effects related to road distance were different from those in 1991, which could be due to changes in the traffic pollution mixture. These findings among a general population provide strong confirmation that living near busy streets leads to adverse respiratory health effects.

Keywords: cohort studies; environmental exposure; geographic information systems; motor vehicles; prevalence; respiratory tract diseases; Switzerland.
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