TY - JOUR
T1 - Aerosol Optical Depth as a Measure of Particulate Exposure Using Imputed Censored Data, and Relationship with Childhood Asthma Hospital Admissions for 2004 in Athens, Greece
AU - Higgs, Gary
AU - Sterling, David A.
AU - Aryal, Subhash
AU - Vemulapalli, Abhilash
AU - Priftis, Kostas N.
AU - Sifakis, Nicolas I.
N1 - Funding Information:
FUNDING : This research was supported by the Fulbright Foundation, Council for International Exchange of Scholars. The authors confirm that the funder had no influence over the study design, content of the article, or selection of this journal.
Funding Information:
This work was supported by the Fulbright Foundation through the Council for International Exchange of Scholars, a division of the Institute of International Education, and was conducted at the Institute for Space Applications and Remote Sensing (ISARS/NOA) in Athens, Greece. Institutional human subjects’ review and approval was obtained through the institutional review board (IRB) at Harris Stowe University. The Fulbright Foundation in Greece awards grants to both Greek and US citizens to enable them to study, teach, or conduct research in either the US or Greece. For more information on the Fulbright Program in Greece, please visit www.fulbright.gr.
Funding Information:
This work was supported by the Fulbright Foundation through the Council for International Exchange of Scholars, a division of the Institute of International Education, and was conducted at the Institute for Space Applications and Remote Sensing (ISARS/NOA) in Athens, Greece. Institutional human subjects’ review and approval was obtained through the institutional review board (IRB) at Harris Stowe University. The Fulbright Foundation in Greece awards grants to both Greek and US citizens to enable them to study, teach, or conduct research in either the US or Greece. For more information on the Fulbright Program in Greece, please visit www.fulbright.gr .
Publisher Copyright:
© 2015 SAGE Publications.
PY - 2015
Y1 - 2015
N2 - An understanding of human health implications from atmosphere exposure is a priority in both the geographic and the public health domains. The unique properties of geographic tools for remote sensing of the atmosphere offer a distinct ability to characterize and model aerosols in the urban atmosphere for evaluation of impacts on health. Asthma, as a manifestation of upper respiratory disease prevalence, is a good example of the potential interface of geographic and public health interests. The current study focused on Athens, Greece during the year of 2004 and (1) demonstrates a systemized process for aligning data obtained from satellite aerosol optical depth (AOD) with geographic location and time, (2) evaluates the ability to apply imputation methods to censored data, and (3) explores whether AOD data can be used satisfactorily to investigate the association between AOD and health impacts using an example of hospital admission for childhood asthma. This work demonstrates the ability to apply remote sensing data in the evaluation of health outcomes, that the alignment process for remote sensing data is readily feasible, and that missing data can be imputed with a sufficient degree of reliability to develop complete datasets. Individual variables demonstrated small but significant effect levels on hospital admission of children for AOD, nitrogen oxides (NOx), relative humidity (rH), temperature, smoke, and inversely for ozone. However, when applying a multivari-able model, an association with asthma hospital admissions and air quality could not be demonstrated. This work is promising and will be expanded to include additional years.
AB - An understanding of human health implications from atmosphere exposure is a priority in both the geographic and the public health domains. The unique properties of geographic tools for remote sensing of the atmosphere offer a distinct ability to characterize and model aerosols in the urban atmosphere for evaluation of impacts on health. Asthma, as a manifestation of upper respiratory disease prevalence, is a good example of the potential interface of geographic and public health interests. The current study focused on Athens, Greece during the year of 2004 and (1) demonstrates a systemized process for aligning data obtained from satellite aerosol optical depth (AOD) with geographic location and time, (2) evaluates the ability to apply imputation methods to censored data, and (3) explores whether AOD data can be used satisfactorily to investigate the association between AOD and health impacts using an example of hospital admission for childhood asthma. This work demonstrates the ability to apply remote sensing data in the evaluation of health outcomes, that the alignment process for remote sensing data is readily feasible, and that missing data can be imputed with a sufficient degree of reliability to develop complete datasets. Individual variables demonstrated small but significant effect levels on hospital admission of children for AOD, nitrogen oxides (NOx), relative humidity (rH), temperature, smoke, and inversely for ozone. However, when applying a multivari-able model, an association with asthma hospital admissions and air quality could not be demonstrated. This work is promising and will be expanded to include additional years.
KW - AOD
KW - Aerosol optical depth
KW - childhood asthma
KW - particulate exposure
UR - http://www.scopus.com/inward/record.url?scp=85073260510&partnerID=8YFLogxK
U2 - 10.4137/EHI.S15665
DO - 10.4137/EHI.S15665
M3 - Article
AN - SCOPUS:85073260510
SN - 1178-6302
VL - 9
JO - Environmental Health Insights
JF - Environmental Health Insights
ER -