Association of Ambient Particulate Matter Exposure with the Incidence of Glaucoma in Childhood.

Abstract

We investigated whether exposure to air pollution, particularly to particles with a mass median aerodynamic diameter of ≤10 μm (PM₁₀), is associated with diagnosis of childhood glaucoma. Retrospective cohort study. From the National Health Insurance Service-National Sample Cohort, a total of 9004 infants born between January 2002 and December 2002 were included and followed-up for an 11-year period (2003-2012). Patients with glaucoma were defined as International Classification of Diseases, 10th revision code H40. Exposure levels of PM₁₀ were extrapolated using geographic information systems, and individual exposure levels were assigned. During the study period, glaucoma occurred in 85 patients (0.94%). The probability of developing childhood glaucoma increased with the increase in PM₁₀ quartiles. Increases in 1 μg/m³ of long-term PM₁₀ were significantly associated with increased hazard ratios (HRs) for childhood glaucoma (HR = 1.22 [95% confidence interval {CI} 1.15-1.28]). Compared with risk of the lowest PM₁₀ exposure group (quartile 1), the adjusted HRs for childhood glaucoma were significant in the highest PM₁₀ exposure group of quartile 4 (HR = 2.84 [95% CI 1.37-5.89]) in model 3. Regarding the long-term PM₁₀ exposure, the estimated hazard was considerably elevated in quartile 4 (HR = 6.61 [95% CI 2.96-14.75]). Short-term and long-term exposure to PM₁₀ was associated with the incidence of childhood glaucoma. This finding confirms previous reports on the link between air pollution and ocular disease and suggests that PM₁₀ exposure may be a risk for childhood glaucoma.