Archives of disease in childhood
September 11, 2026 · via Europe PMC
Association between sociodemographic factors, neighbourhood cigarette smoke exposure and critical illness due to respiratory condition among paediatric population in England, 2014-2023: a retrospective cohort study.
Vadibeler S, Mustafa K, Dondo TB, Mitchell HK, Seaton SE, Feltbower R.
AI summary — for doctors, generated from the abstract only
Asian and Black ethnicity, deprivation and higher neighbourhood smoking were associated with higher PICU respiratory admission rates in England, and some groups had higher PICU mortality.
What was studied
A retrospective cohort of 41,859 respiratory PICU admissions for 30,442 children in England (2014-2023), examining sociodemographic factors and area-level cigarette smoke exposure.
Key findings
- Higher admission IRRs for Asian (1.5) and Black (1.7) children and most deprived areas (aIRR 1.7)
- Highest area smoking exposure aIRR 1.3 (95% CI 1.1-1.5)
- Higher in-PICU mortality for Asian children (OR 2.1) and most deprived areas (aOR 1.6)
Clinical relevance
This supports community-level tobacco control and attention to inequities as part of child respiratory health efforts.
Who should care
Limitations
Area-level smoking exposure is ecological and may not reflect individual exposure; residual confounding is possible.
Where children live, including local smoking rates, is linked to their risk of critical respiratory illness.
This is an AI-generated summary of the published abstract, not a clinical recommendation. It may not reflect the full text or subsequent updates — verify against the original source before acting on it.
Abstract
Objectives
To investigate the association between sociodemographic disparities and area-level smoking with paediatric intensive care unit (PICU) respiratory admission risk and outcomes.
Design
Retrospective cohort study.
Setting
English PICUs.
Patients
Children aged <16 years admitted with respiratory illness between January 2014 and December 2023.
Main outcome measures
Crude incidence of PICU admission and incidence rate ratios (IRRs). ORs for in-PICU mortality.
Results
Analysis included 41 859 admissions for 30 442 children. The respiratory admission IRRs were higher in children of Asian and Black ethnicity and in children from the most deprived areas compared with children of White ethnicity and those from the least deprived areas (IRR 1.5, 95% CI 1.3 to 1.7; IRR 1.7, 95% CI 1.4 to 1.9; adjusted IRR 1.7, 95% CI 1.4 to 2.2). Children living in areas with the highest cigarette smoke exposure had a higher respiratory admission IRR (adjusted IRR 1.3, 95% CI 1.1 to 1.5) compared with those in areas with the lowest exposure. Children of Asian ethnicity and those from the most deprived areas had a higher in-PICU mortality compared with children of White ethnicity and those from the least deprived areas (OR 2.1, 95% CI 1.8 to 2.5 and adjusted OR 1.6, 95% CI 1.2 to 2.0).
Conclusions
Ethnicity and deprivation were associated with higher PICU respiratory admission incidence and poorer outcomes. Children from areas with higher cigarette smoke were more likely to require PICU admission for respiratory diseases. Community-focused tobacco control measures to reduce population-level smoking can benefit child respiratory health.
DOI
10.1136/archdischild-2025-330159
PMID
42727988
Research metadata (titles, abstracts, authors, publication dates) is sourced from Europe PMC, which aggregates content from PubMed/MEDLINE, PubMed Central, and other providers under the U.S. National Library of Medicine (NLM/NCBI). NLM does not claim copyright on abstracts; the original journal publishers or authors may hold rights to the full articles. AI-generated summaries are derived only from the abstract, never the full text, and are always labeled as AI-generated.
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