%0 Journal Article
%T Respiratory symptoms in children living near busy roads and their relationship to vehicular traffic: results of an Italian multicenter study (SIDRIA 2)
%A Enrica Migliore
%A Giovanna Berti
%A Claudia Galassi
%A Neil Pearce
%A Francesco Forastiere
%A Roberto Calabrese
%A Lucio Armenio
%A Annibale Biggeri
%A Luigi Bisanti
%A Massimiliano Bugiani
%A Ennio Cadum
%A Elisabetta Chellini
%A Valerio Dell'Orco
%A Gabriele Giannella
%A Piersante Sestini
%A Giuseppe Corbo
%A Riccardo Pistelli
%A Giovanni Viegi
%A Giovannino Ciccone
%A SIDRIA-2 Collaborative Group
%J Environmental Health
%D 2009
%I BioMed Central
%R 10.1186/1476-069x-8-27
%X The survey was conducted in 2002 in 12 centers in Northern, Center and Southern Italy, different in size, climate, latitude and level of urbanization. Standardized questionnaires filled in by parents were used to collect information on health outcomes and exposure to traffic among 33,632 6¨C7 and 13¨C14 years old children and adolescents. Three questions on traffic exposure were asked: the traffic in the zone of residence, the frequency of truck and of car traffic in the street of residence. The presence of a possible response bias for the self-reported traffic was evaluated using external validation (comparison with measurements of traffic flow in the city of Turin) and internal validations (matching by census block, in the cities of Turin, Milan and Rome).Overall traffic density was weakly associated with asthma symptoms but there was a stronger association with cough or phlegm (high traffic density OR = 1.24; 95% CI: 1.04, 1.49). Car and truck traffic were independently associated with cough or phlegm. The results of the external validation did not support the existence of a reporting bias for the observed associations, for all the self-reported traffic indicators examined. The internal validations showed that the observed association between traffic density in the zone of residence and respiratory symptoms did not appear to be explained by an over reporting of traffic by parents of symptomatic subjects.Children living in zones with intense traffic are at higher risk for respiratory effects. Since population characteristics are specific, the results of validation of studies on self-reported traffic exposure can not be generalized.Vehicular traffic is a major source of outdoor air pollution. Several studies have reported associations between exposure to traffic pollutants in the zone of residence and increased frequency of respiratory tract illnesses [1-10]. The specific role of diesel exhaust from heavy traffic has been suggested in some of these studies [4,5,7], a
%U http://www.ehjournal.net/content/8/1/27