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Background: Exposure to air pollutants has been related to preterm birth, but little evidence can be available for PM2.5, O3 and CO in China. This study aimed to investigate the short-term effect of exposure to air pollutants on risk preterm birth during 2014-2016 in Ningbo, China.Methods: We conducted a time-series study to evaluate the associations between daily preterm birth and major air pollutants (including PM2.5, PM10, SO2, NO2, O3 and CO) in Ningbo during 2014-2016. A General Additive Model extend Poisson regression was used to evaluate the relationship between preterm birth and air pollution with adjustment for time-trend, meteorological factors and day of the week (DOW). We also conducted a subgroup analysis by season and age.Results: In this study, a total of 37,389 birth occurred between 2014 and 2016 from the Electronic Medical Records System of Ningbo Women and Children's Hospital, of which 5428 were verified as preterm birth. The single pollutant model suggested that lag effect of PM2.5, PM10, NO2 reached a peak at day 3 before delivery and day 6 for SO2, and no relationships were observed for O3 and preterm birth. Excess risks (95% confidence intervals) for an increase of IQR of air pollutant concentrations were 4.84 (95% CI: 1.77, 8.00) for PM2.5, 3.56 (95% CI: 0.07, 7.17) for PM10, 3.65 (95% CI: 0.86, 6.51) for SO2, 6.49 (95% CI: 1.86, 11.34) for NO2, - 0.90 (95% CI: -4.76, 3.11) for O3, and 3.36 (95% CI: 0.50, 6.30) for CO. Sensitivity analyses by exclusion of maternal age < 18 or > 35 years did not materially alter our results.Conclusions: This study indicates that short-term exposure to air pollutants (including PM2.5, PM10, SO2, NO2) are positively associated with risk of preterm birth in Ningbo, China. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

A total of 2 769 children with allergic disease were admitted from October 2010 to December in Ningbo Women & Children's Hospital. Fourteen kinds of serum specific-IgE were detected by immunoblotting method. Among the 2 769 children, the total positive rate of sIgE was 76.0% (2 105/2 769). The sIgE positive rate in males (80.0%, 1 344/1 679) was significantly higher than that of females (69.8%, 761/1 090)(P < 0.05). The top three allergens were dust mites (33.2%), milk (12.6%) and fungi (12.6%). There were statistical differences of positive reaction to dust mites among 4 seasons (19.4%, 33.9%, 39.3%, 36.0%) (P < 0.05). Significant differences were found in the positive rates of dust mites, milk, fungi, and egg among the age groups (P < 0.05). The level of dust mite specific IgE were mainly in grade 3-6 (613/918, 66.8%).