Air Pollution and Academic Performance in School Children: Preliminary Results from a Longitudinal Study in Chile

Le résumé fourni par la source

TPS 731: Neurological effects in children, Exhibition Hall, Ground floor, August 26, 2019, 3:00 PM - 4:30 PM Background: Air pollution has been consistently linked to detrimental impacts on children’s health, nevertheless, evidence on the impact of air pollution on academic performance is limited. This study presents preliminary results from a project that analyzes the impact of exposure to ambient particulate matter 2.5 (PM2.5), one of the most harmful constituents of air pollution, on academic performance in school children in Chile. Methods: We combined 1-km estimates from a global PM2.5 model developed by van Donkelaar et al. (2016) with administrative data on the universe of results from a standardized test taken by fourth, eight and tenth graders between 2002 and 2016 in all schools in Chile to study the association between school-level PM2.5 concentration and individual-level academic performance. Annual means of PM2.5 and surrounding vegetation were estimated for 250m buffers around each school. We used a panel structure to control for school and individual time-invariant characteristics. We also exploit the variation provided by children that attended different schools when taking the standardized test at different grades. Results: The total number of observations (test results) were 8,984,359 corresponding to 4,823,847 individuals in 8,759 schools for the 15-year study period. Annual PM2.5 in schools varied between 8 ug/m3 to 34 ug/m3, with significant differences between schools in urban versus rural areas. We detected a small, non-significant negative impact of air pollution exposure on mathematics standardized test scores (-0.4 score points, p<0.89), and a small negative significant effect of air pollution on language test scores (-0.23 score points, p<0.001), per 1 ug/m3 increase in annual PM2.5 concentrations. Conclusions: Air pollution exposure has a detrimental impact on academic performance in school children.

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