The children were presumed to be more vulnerable and at greater risk for air pollution–related effects (Gouveia and Fletcher,2000; Schwartz, 2004). In 2009, a total of 271 580 hospital admissions were recorded for pediatric department of Shanghai Sixth People’s Hospital and Children’s Hospital of Fudan University.
Average daily admissions of pediatric department during the winter (November, December, and January) were 455.2 and 405.6 for the two hospitals respectively, while the average admissions for the year of 2009 were 356.4 and 262.6 respectively (Table 2).
The greater number of pediatric outpatients in winter could be due to many reasons, such as influenza season, haze pollution exposure,etc