Indoor air quality (IAQ) and respiratory symptoms among children in tropical Singapore child care centers employing different ventilation stategies

This paper sums up the current results of the IAQ characteristics in 104 child care centers (CCC) , using 4 different ventilation strategies.The corresponding respiratory health symptoms of attending children with their frequency and prevalence rates are summarized too.Temperature, relative humidity and ventilation rates of naturally ventilated CCCs were consistently higher than that of air-conditioned CCCs. This study indicated that there were no significant differences in both current and acute asthma and allergic symptom prevalence in different ventilated CCCs with the exception of asthma exacerbations leading to ER visits (highest in ACMV). There were also no significant differences in frequency and prevalence rates between CCC groups highlighting possible confounding effect of high number of children present in naturally ventilated CCCs.