| Background: Air pollution in cities has always been a permanent and serious threat for the health of society and the
environment, influencing the health of different body organs
and systems both acutely and chronically. Therefore, the aim
of this study is to investigate the effect of air pollution in saliva
Interleukin-8 (IL-8) levels in children.
Materials and methods: A total of 88, 8- to 10-year-old children were included in this descriptive cross-sectional study.
Group I, the case group, included 44 children from Tabriz
(Iranian Azerbaijan), and group II, the control group, included
44 children from Kalibar Town (of Tabriz). Both groups in this
study had a similar economic status. Following sampling and
selection of individuals, for measuring the levels of saliva IL-8,
ELISA (enzyme-linked immunosorbent assay) method was
used. To investigate the difference between the means of the
groups, independent t test or its nonparametric equivalent,
i.e., Man–Whitney test and Statistical Package for the Social
Sciences (SPSS) 21 were used. In this study, p-value lower
than 0.05 was considered statistically significant.
Results: The results of this study indicate a significant difference in the levels of saliva IL-8 between the two groups, where
the mean level of saliva IL-8 is greater in children residing in the
region with higher air pollution level than in the children dwelling in the region with a greater air pollution level (p = 0.001).
Conclusion: The results obtained from this study indicated
that the level of saliva IL-8 increases in regions with air pollution, potentially causing several mouth problems in children. |