Abstract

Indigenous children have much higher rates of ear and lung disease than non-Indigenous children, which may be related to exposure to high levels of geogenic (earth-derived) particulate matter (PM). The aim of this study was to assess the relationship between dust levels and health in Indigenous children in Western Australia (W.A.). Data were from a population-based sample of 1077 Indigenous children living in 66 remote communities of W.A. (>2,000,000 km(2)), with information on health outcomes derived from carer reports and hospitalisation records. Associations between dust levels and health outcomes were assessed by multivariate logistic regression in a multi-level framework. We assessed the effect of exposure to community sampled PM on epithelial cell (NuLi-1) responses to non-typeable Haemophilus influenzae (NTHi) in vitro. High dust levels were associated with increased odds of hospitalisation for upper (OR 1.77 95% CI [1.02-3.06]) and lower (OR 1.99 95% CI [1.08-3.68]) respiratory tract infections and ear disease (OR 3.06 95% CI [1.20-7.80]). Exposure to PM enhanced NTHi adhesion and invasion of epithelial cells and impaired IL-8 production. Exposure to geogenic PM may be contributing to the poor respiratory health of disadvantaged communities in arid environments where geogenic PM levels are high.

Authors	Shepherd, Carrington C. J.; Clifford, Holly D.; Mitrou, Francis; Melody, Shannon M.; Bennett, Ellen J.; Johnston, Fay H.; Knibbs, Luke D.; Pereira, Gavin; Pickering, Janessa L.; Teo, Teck H.; Kirkham, Lea-Ann S.; Thornton, Ruth B.; Kicic, Anthony; Ling, Kak-Ming; Alach, Zachary; Lester, Matthew; Franklin, Peter; Reid, David; Zosky, Graeme R.
Journal	International Journal Of Environmental Research And Public Health
Pages
Volume	16
Date	1/08/2019
Grant ID
Funding Body	Raine Medical Research Foundationo Grant
URL	http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/?term=10.3390/ijerph16152636