Neighborhood allergenic trees and lung function from early adolescence up to early adulthood in Germany

INTRODUCTION: We investigated whether having more birch trees or more allergenic trees around home in early adolescence was related to worse lung function up to early adulthood in the German cities of Munich and Dresden. METHODS: /FVC were measured by spirometry at both time points. The number of birch trees, allergenic trees, and total trees, along with tree cover density and the normalized difference vegetation index (NDVI) were calculated in 300 m buffers around home at baseline. The associations were assessed by generalized least squares regressions with a variance-covariance structure accounting for heteroscedasticity and within-subject correlations. RESULTS: . DISCUSSION: Birch trees around the childhood home, as proxy of long-term exposure to allergenic birch pollen, were associated with slightly lower lung function up to early adulthood. Future studies on health effects of greenspace exposure should include species of plants.

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Publication Details

Journal
Environment International
Published
2026-04-15
DOI
https://doi.org/10.1016/j.envint.2026.110259
Primary Topic
Urban Green Space and Health
Type
article
Field-Weighted Citation Impact
0.00

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article

Neighborhood allergenic trees and lung function from early adolescence up to early adulthood in Germany

Ursula Berger, Johanna Heinrich, Gudrun Weinmayr, Felix Forster et al.
Environment International
Urban Green Space and Health
article

Neighborhood allergenic trees and lung function from early adolescence up to early adulthood in Germany

Ursula Berger, Johanna Heinrich, Gudrun Weinmayr, Felix Forster, Clemens Baumbach, Jon Genuneit, K De Hoogh, Christian Vogelberg, Katja Radon, Erika von Mutius, Dennis Nowak
article en

Abstract

INTRODUCTION: We investigated whether having more birch trees or more allergenic trees around home in early adolescence was related to worse lung function up to early adulthood in the German cities of Munich and Dresden. METHODS: /FVC were measured by spirometry at both time points. The number of birch trees, allergenic trees, and total trees, along with tree cover density and the normalized difference vegetation index (NDVI) were calculated in 300 m buffers around home at baseline. The associations were assessed by generalized least squares regressions with a variance-covariance structure accounting for heteroscedasticity and within-subject correlations. RESULTS: . DISCUSSION: Birch trees around the childhood home, as proxy of long-term exposure to allergenic birch pollen, were associated with slightly lower lung function up to early adulthood. Future studies on health effects of greenspace exposure should include species of plants.

Environment InternationalVol. 211
Goethe University Frankfurt (DE), Swiss Tropical and Public Health Institute (CH), University of Basel (CH), Universität Ulm (DE), LMU Klinikum (DE), Zimmer Biomet (Germany) (DE), German Center for Lung Research (DE), University Hospital Carl Gustav Carus (DE), Technische Universität Dresden (DE), Ludwig-Maximilians-Universität München (DE)
Bundesministerium für Bildung und Forschung, Narodowe Centrum Nauki, Bundesanstalt für Arbeitsschutz und Arbeitsmedizin, Bundesministerium für Arbeit und Soziales
Openalex Percentile: Top 24%
Urban Green Space and Health
DOIOpen Access PDFOpenAlex
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