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Perception Matters: Perceived vs. Objective Air Quality Measures and Asthma Diagnosis among Urban Adults
Journal article   Open access   Peer reviewed

Perception Matters: Perceived vs. Objective Air Quality Measures and Asthma Diagnosis among Urban Adults

Jane E. Clougherty and Pilar Ocampo
International journal of environmental research and public health, v 20(17), p6648
25 Aug 2023
DOI: https://doi.org/10.3390/ijerph20176648
url
https://doi.org/10.1609/aaai.v37i13.26859View
Published, Version of Record (VoR)CC BY V4.0,  Open
url
https://doi.org/10.3390/ijerph20176648View
Published, Version of Record (VoR) Open

Abstract

Urban air pollution is consistently linked to poorer respiratory health, particularly in communities of lower socioeconomic position (SEP), disproportionately located near highways and industrial areas and often with elevated exposures to chronic psychosocial stressors. Fewer studies, however, have considered air pollution itself as a psychosocial stressor and whether pollution may be impacting health through both direct physiologic and psychosocial pathways. We examined data on perceived air pollution exposures from a spatially representative survey of New York City adults through summer and winter 2012 (n = 1183) using residence-specific ambient nitrogen dioxide (NO2) and fine particulate matter (PM2.5) exposure estimates. We used logistic regression to compare associations for perceived and objective air quality on self-reported asthma and general health, adjusting for sociodemographics and mental health. In models including all exposure metrics, we found small but significant associations for perceived air quality (OR = 1.12, 95% CI: 1.04–1.22) but not for NO2 or PM2.5. Neither perceived nor objective pollution was significantly associated with self-reported general health. Results suggest that perceived air quality may be significantly associated with adult asthma, more so than objective air pollution and after adjusting for mental health—associations not observed for self-reported general health.

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5 citations in Scopus

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