Study revealed, children living in cities are more at risk of respiratory infections – Dainik Savera Times
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New Delhi: Children living in towns and cities are at higher risk of respiratory infections than children living in rural areas. This has been reported in a study. Another research published in the journal ‘Pediatric Pulmonology’ suggests that factors like staying in ‘day care’ (institutions that look after children in the absence of parents), living in damp houses or living near high traffic areas. Because of this, the risk of respiratory infections is higher in young children, while breastfeeding reduces this risk. Both studies were presented on Monday at the ‘European Respiratory Society International Congress’ in Milan, Italy.
The first study, presented by Niklas Brustad of the University of Copenhagen in Denmark, involved 663 children and their mothers. Mothers were involved in the research from pregnancy until their children were three years old. The researchers looked at whether children lived in urban or rural areas and how often they had respiratory infections. They found that children living in urban areas had an average of 17 respiratory infections, such as cold and cough, before the age of three, while children living in rural areas had an average of 15 infections.
The researchers also conducted detailed tests of the blood of the women and their newborns during pregnancy and analyzed the immune systems of the babies when they were four weeks old. They found that there was a difference in the immune system of children living in urban areas compared to children living in rural areas. The second study, presented by Tom Ruffels of the UK-based University Hospitals Sussex NHS Foundation Trust, included data from 1,344 women and their children living in Scotland and England.
The study found that breastfeeding for more than six months helped protect infants and toddlers from infection, while keeping children in day care increased the risk. According to researchers, children living in humid houses and areas with high traffic are also at higher risk of infection.
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