TY - JOUR
T1 - Prenatal particulate air pollution and neurodevelopment in urban children
T2 - Examining sensitive windows and sex-specific associations
AU - Chiu, Yueh Hsiu Mathilda
AU - Hsu, Hsiao Hsien Leon
AU - Coull, Brent A.
AU - Bellinger, David C.
AU - Kloog, Itai
AU - Schwartz, Joel
AU - Wright, Robert O.
AU - Wright, Rosalind J.
N1 - Funding Information:
The Asthma Coalition on Community, Environment, and Social Stress (ACCESS) project has been funded by grants R01 ES010932, U01 HL072494, R01 HL080674, R01 MD006086 and P30 ES023515; air pollution modeling and statistical support were funded by EPA RD 83479801 and P30 ES000002, respectively. The authors declare they have no competing financial interests.
Publisher Copyright:
© 2015 Elsevier Ltd.
PY - 2016/2/1
Y1 - 2016/2/1
N2 - Background: Brain growth and structural organization occurs in stages beginning prenatally. Toxicants may impact neurodevelopment differently dependent upon exposure timing and fetal sex. Objectives: We implemented innovative methodology to identify sensitive windows for the associations between prenatal particulate matter with diameter≤2.5μm (PM2.5) and children's neurodevelopment. Methods: We assessed 267 full-term urban children's prenatal daily PM2.5 exposure using a validated satellite-based spatio-temporally resolved prediction model. Outcomes included IQ (WISC-IV), attention (omission errors [OEs], commission errors [CEs], hit reaction time [HRT], and HRT standard error [HRT-SE] on the Conners' CPT-II), and memory (general memory [GM] index and its components - verbal [VEM] and visual [VIM] memory, and attention-concentration [AC] indices on the WRAML-2) assessed at age 6.5±0.98years. To identify the role of exposure timing, we used distributed lag models to examine associations between weekly prenatal PM2.5 exposure and neurodevelopment. Sex-specific associations were also examined. Results: Mothers were primarily minorities (60% Hispanic, 25% black); 69% had ≤12years of education. Adjusting for maternal age, education, race, and smoking, we found associations between higher PM2.5 levels at 31-38weeks with lower IQ, at 20-26weeks gestation with increased OEs, at 32-36weeks with slower HRT, and at 22-40weeks with increased HRT-SE among boys, while significant associations were found in memory domains in girls (higher PM2.5 exposure at 18-26weeks with reduced VIM, at 12-20weeks with reduced GM). Conclusions: Increased PM2.5 exposure in specific prenatal windows may be associated with poorer function across memory and attention domains with variable associations based on sex. Refined determination of time window- and sex-specific associations may enhance insight into underlying mechanisms and identification of vulnerable subgroups.
AB - Background: Brain growth and structural organization occurs in stages beginning prenatally. Toxicants may impact neurodevelopment differently dependent upon exposure timing and fetal sex. Objectives: We implemented innovative methodology to identify sensitive windows for the associations between prenatal particulate matter with diameter≤2.5μm (PM2.5) and children's neurodevelopment. Methods: We assessed 267 full-term urban children's prenatal daily PM2.5 exposure using a validated satellite-based spatio-temporally resolved prediction model. Outcomes included IQ (WISC-IV), attention (omission errors [OEs], commission errors [CEs], hit reaction time [HRT], and HRT standard error [HRT-SE] on the Conners' CPT-II), and memory (general memory [GM] index and its components - verbal [VEM] and visual [VIM] memory, and attention-concentration [AC] indices on the WRAML-2) assessed at age 6.5±0.98years. To identify the role of exposure timing, we used distributed lag models to examine associations between weekly prenatal PM2.5 exposure and neurodevelopment. Sex-specific associations were also examined. Results: Mothers were primarily minorities (60% Hispanic, 25% black); 69% had ≤12years of education. Adjusting for maternal age, education, race, and smoking, we found associations between higher PM2.5 levels at 31-38weeks with lower IQ, at 20-26weeks gestation with increased OEs, at 32-36weeks with slower HRT, and at 22-40weeks with increased HRT-SE among boys, while significant associations were found in memory domains in girls (higher PM2.5 exposure at 18-26weeks with reduced VIM, at 12-20weeks with reduced GM). Conclusions: Increased PM2.5 exposure in specific prenatal windows may be associated with poorer function across memory and attention domains with variable associations based on sex. Refined determination of time window- and sex-specific associations may enhance insight into underlying mechanisms and identification of vulnerable subgroups.
KW - Air pollution
KW - Neurodevelopment
KW - Particulate matter
KW - Prenatal exposure
KW - Sensitive windows
KW - Sex-specific associations
UR - http://www.scopus.com/inward/record.url?scp=84948438444&partnerID=8YFLogxK
U2 - 10.1016/j.envint.2015.11.010
DO - 10.1016/j.envint.2015.11.010
M3 - Article
C2 - 26641520
AN - SCOPUS:84948438444
SN - 0160-4120
VL - 87
SP - 56
EP - 65
JO - Environment international
JF - Environment international
ER -
