ORIGINAL RESEARCH article
Front. Public Health
Sec. Children and Health
Volume 13 - 2025 | doi: 10.3389/fpubh.2025.1595089
This article is part of the Research TopicImpact of School Air Quality on Children's Health and Academic PerformanceView all 5 articles
A Cross-Sectional Analysis of Air Pollution in Primary Schools and Children Fatigue
Provisionally accepted
Vaida Taminskiene1,2*
Nina Prokopciuk3
Vilmante Karvelyte2Egle Vaitkaitiene4Mindaugas Butikis2Algirdas Valiulis5Vilte Sapronaite6
Gintare Talmontaite6Ginreta Megelinskiene2
Rimantas Stukas2
Arunas Valiulis2,3- 1Vilnius University, Vilnius, Lithuania
- 2Department of Public Health, Institute of Health Sciences, Faculty of Medicine, Vilnius University, Vilnius, Vilnius, Lithuania
- 3Clinic of Children’s Diseases, Institute of Clinical Medicine, Faculty of Medicine, Vilnius University, Vilnius, Lithuania
- 4Medical Academy, Lithuanian University of Health Sciences, Kaunas, Kaunas, Lithuania
- 5Department of Rehabilitation, Physical and Sports Medicine, Institute of Health Sciences, Faculty of Medicine, Vilnius University, Vilnius, Lithuania
- 6Faculty of Medicine, Vilnius University, Vilnius, Lithuania
Select one of your emails
You have multiple emails registered with Frontiers:
Notify me on publication
Please enter your email address:
If you already have an account, please login
You don't have a Frontiers account ? You can register here
Childhood fatigue is influenced by various factors, including health status, socioeconomic conditions, lifestyle choices, and environmental factors like air pollution. In this study we aimed to explore the relationship between children's fatigue and air pollution in the classrooms. 547 children from eight primary schools were enrolled into the study. Mean age (± standard deviation [SD]) of respondents was 9.03 (±0.42) years; 44.9% were males. Air pollution was measured in the classrooms including concentration of particulate matter (PM1, PM2.5, PM10) and micro elemental analysis of dust. Fatigue was assessed by the Pediatric Quality of Life Inventory Multidimensional Fatigue Scale self-reports in scores ranging from 0 to 100. Higher scores indicated less fatigue. The mean (±SD) total fatigue score was 80.13 (±7.99). Multivariate linear regression was performed to explore factors independently associated with children's fatigue. We found that higher levels of fatigue in children were linked to worse overall health, lower academic performance, and fewer extracurricular activities. Additionally, levels of particulate matter, barium, and vanadium in the natural dust aggregates were independently related to increased fatigue. A cross-sectional type of our study only allows for the confirmation of statistical associations between fatigue levels and their possible determinants as specific air pollutants; further research is needed to explain and understand causal pathways better.
Keywords: children fatigue1, air pollution2, environmental health3, particulate matter4, primary school5, dust aggregates6, micro elemental composition7
Received: 17 Mar 2025; Accepted: 31 Jul 2025.
Copyright: © 2025 Taminskiene, Prokopciuk, Karvelyte, Vaitkaitiene, Butikis, Valiulis, Sapronaite, Talmontaite, Megelinskiene, Stukas and Valiulis. This is an open-access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License (CC BY). The use, distribution or reproduction in other forums is permitted, provided the original author(s) or licensor are credited and that the original publication in this journal is cited, in accordance with accepted academic practice. No use, distribution or reproduction is permitted which does not comply with these terms.
* Correspondence: Vaida Taminskiene, Vilnius University, Vilnius, Lithuania
Disclaimer: All claims expressed in this article are solely those of the authors and do not necessarily represent those of their affiliated organizations, or those of the publisher, the editors and the reviewers. Any product that may be evaluated in this article or claim that may be made by its manufacturer is not guaranteed or endorsed by the publisher.