Abstract:
The University of Washington Human Subjects Division and the Cystic Fibrosis Foundation granted approval for the use of subject medical data from the Cystic Fibrosis Foundation National Patient Registry for this study. The study aims to estimate the association between ambient air pollutants and the number of pulmonary exacerbations in a cohort of cystic fibrosis subjects. The study hypothesis is that children and adults with cystic fibrosis, who are geographically located in areas with high levels of ambient air pollution, will experience an increased frequency of pulmonary exacerbations compared to subjects with CF who are exposed to lower levels of ambient air pollution. The study differs from the majority of the current air pollution literature, in that it examines sub-chronic effects of exposure over a one-year period, in contrast to the acute effects that have been demonstrated in numerous time-series analyses.