The Effects of Air Pollution and Physical Activity on Respiratory Health in Children in the Context of Urbanization

ended

Urbanization has changed the land-use in Europe and the majority of the world. Over 80% of Europeans, who are expected to live in urban neighbourhoods by 2030, are at risk of developing chronic respiratory disease (CRD) due to the chronic exposure to increased levels of air pollution, that is characteristic for urban and peri-urban areas. Increased car traffic due to high population and building densities in cities have been associated with poor air quality. Research on how the continued urbanization and the built environment affect human health is emerging. To date, very little is known about how the built environment affects respiratory health in children directly, or indirectly by influencing health behaviours such as physical activity. Childhood is a period of growth and development, which makes children particularly vulnerable to changing environments. Because the respiratory system and the lungs act as the first organ of contact with air pollutants, the health effects of air pollution exposure need to be studied in combination with physical activity. Physical activity increases the breathing rate and the depth of breaths taken in, which facilitates pollutants to reach areas deep in the bronchial tree at higher concentrations, where they can cause damage locally, or be absorbed into the blood stream, and impact regulatory processes systemically. The purpose of this project is to analyze how the built environment affects the combined exposure to air pollution and physical activity with respect to children's respiratory health pre- and postnatally using an exposome approach. We will use data from the Human Early-Life Exposure (HELIX) project, including 1301 mother-child pairs from 6 longitudinal cohort studies across Europe. This research is important, because we will use original, innovative, and interdisciplinary methods to assess how the built environment affects respiratory health in early life, the optimal time point to prevent CRD.