TY - JOUR
T1 - Postnatal exposure to PM2.5 and weight trajectories in early childhood
AU - Vanoli, Jacopo
AU - Coull, Brent A.
AU - Ettinger de Cuba, Stephanie
AU - Fabian, Patricia M.
AU - Carnes, Fei
AU - Massaro, Marisa A.
AU - Poblacion, Ana
AU - Bellocco, Rino
AU - Kloog, Itai
AU - Schwartz, Joel
AU - Laden, Francine
AU - Zanobetti, Antonella
N1 - Publisher Copyright:
Copyright © 2021 The Authors. Published by Wolters Kluwer Health, Inc. on behalf of The Environmental Epidemiology. All rights reserved.
PY - 2022/2/16
Y1 - 2022/2/16
N2 - Background: Inconsistent evidence has assessed the impact of air pollution exposure on children’s growth trajectories. We investigated the role of 90-day average postnatal fine particulate matter (PM2.5) exposures by estimating the magnitude of effects at different ages, and the change in child weight trajectory by categories of exposure. Methods: We obtained weight values from electronic health records at each hospital visit (males = 1859, females = 1601) from birth to 6 years old children recruited into the Boston-based Children’s HealthWatch cohort (2009–2014). We applied mixed models, adjusting for individual and maternal confounders using (1) varying-coefficient models allowing for smooth non-linear interaction between age and PM2.5, (2) factor-smooth interaction between age and PM2.5 quartiles. Additionally, we stratified by sex and low birthweight (LBW) status (≤2500 g). Results: Using varying-coefficient models, we found that PM2.5 significantly modified the association between age and weight in males, with a positive association in children younger than 3 years and a negative association afterwards. In boys, for each 10 µg/m3 increase in PM2.5 we found a 2.6% increase (95% confidence interval = 0.8, 4.6) in weight at 1 year of age and a −0.6% (95% confidence interval = −3.9, 2.9) at 5 years. We found similar but smaller changes in females, and no differences comparing growth trajectories across quartiles of PM2.5. Most of the effects were in LBW children and null for normal birthweight children. Conclusions: This study suggests that medium-term postnatal PM2.5 may modify weight trajectories nonlinearly in young children, and that LBW babies are more susceptible than normal-weight infants.
AB - Background: Inconsistent evidence has assessed the impact of air pollution exposure on children’s growth trajectories. We investigated the role of 90-day average postnatal fine particulate matter (PM2.5) exposures by estimating the magnitude of effects at different ages, and the change in child weight trajectory by categories of exposure. Methods: We obtained weight values from electronic health records at each hospital visit (males = 1859, females = 1601) from birth to 6 years old children recruited into the Boston-based Children’s HealthWatch cohort (2009–2014). We applied mixed models, adjusting for individual and maternal confounders using (1) varying-coefficient models allowing for smooth non-linear interaction between age and PM2.5, (2) factor-smooth interaction between age and PM2.5 quartiles. Additionally, we stratified by sex and low birthweight (LBW) status (≤2500 g). Results: Using varying-coefficient models, we found that PM2.5 significantly modified the association between age and weight in males, with a positive association in children younger than 3 years and a negative association afterwards. In boys, for each 10 µg/m3 increase in PM2.5 we found a 2.6% increase (95% confidence interval = 0.8, 4.6) in weight at 1 year of age and a −0.6% (95% confidence interval = −3.9, 2.9) at 5 years. We found similar but smaller changes in females, and no differences comparing growth trajectories across quartiles of PM2.5. Most of the effects were in LBW children and null for normal birthweight children. Conclusions: This study suggests that medium-term postnatal PM2.5 may modify weight trajectories nonlinearly in young children, and that LBW babies are more susceptible than normal-weight infants.
KW - Children’s weight trajectories
KW - Fine particulate matter
KW - Low-income families
KW - Postnatal exposure
KW - Varying coefficient models
UR - http://www.scopus.com/inward/record.url?scp=85122143385&partnerID=8YFLogxK
U2 - 10.1097/EE9.0000000000000181
DO - 10.1097/EE9.0000000000000181
M3 - Article
C2 - 35169661
AN - SCOPUS:85122143385
SN - 2474-7882
VL - 6
SP - E181
JO - Environmental Epidemiology
JF - Environmental Epidemiology
IS - 1
ER -