The role of outdoor fungi on asthma hospital admissions in children and adolescents: A 5-year time stratified case-crossover analysis

Abstract

Background Some fungal spores can trigger asthma exacerbation but knowledge of which outdoor fungal spores contribute to asthma hospitalisation is limited. Objectives To examine the role of outdoor fungal spores in child and adolescent asthma hospitalisations. Methods We conducted a bi-directional time-stratified case-crossover study of child and adolescent asthma hospitalisations over 5 years. Conditional logistic regression assessed the role of 20 fungi taxa (Same day [L0] and lagged [L1-3]) adjusted for maximum temperature, humidity and grass pollen. Strata specific effects were explored if there was evidence of effect modification by age, sex, air pollutants or grass pollen. Non-linear e..