Prenatal Particulate Air Pollution Exposure and Body Composition in Urban Preschool Children: Examining Sensitive Windows and Sex-specific Associations

Details

• Alternative Title:
  Environ Res
• Personal Author:
  Chiu, Yueh-Hsiu Mathilda ; Hsu, Hsiao-Hsien Leon ; Wilson, Ander ; Coull, Brent A. ; Pendo, Mathew P. ; Baccarelli, Andrea ; Kloog, Itai ; Schwartz, Joel ; Wright, Robert O. ; Taveras, Elsie ; Wright, Rosalind J.
• Description:
  Background
  
  Evolving animal studies and limited epidemiological data show that prenatal air pollution exposure is associated with childhood obesity. Timing of exposure and child sex may play an important role in these associations. We applied an innovative method to examine sex-specific sensitive prenatal windows of exposure to PM2.5 on anthropometric measures in preschool-aged children.
  
  Methods
  
  Analyses included 239 children born ≥37 weeks gestation in an ethnically-mixed lower-income urban birth cohort. Prenatal daily PM2.5 exposure was estimated using a validated satellite-based spatio-temporal model. Body mass index z-score (BMI-z), fat mass, % body fat, subscapular and triceps skinfold thickness, waist and hip circumferences and waist-to-hip ratio (WHR) were assessed at age 4.0±0.7 years. Using Bayesian distributed lag interaction models (BDLIMs), we examined sex differences in sensitive windows of weekly averaged PM2.5 levels on these measures, adjusting for child age, maternal age, education, race/ethnicity, and pre-pregnancy BMI.
  
  Results
  
  Mothers were primarily Hispanic (55%) or Black (26%), had ≤12 years of education (66%) and never smoked (80%). Increased PM2.5 exposure from 8–17 and 15–22 weeks gestation was significantly associated with increased BMI z-scores and fat mass in boys, but not in girls. Higher PM2.5 exposure from 10–29 weeks gestation was significantly associated with increased WHR in girls, but not in boys. Prenatal PM2.5 was not significantly associated with other measures of body composition. Estimated cumulative effects across pregnancy, accounting for sensitive windows and within-window effects, were 0.21 (95%CI=0.01–0.37) for BMI-z and 0.36 (95%CI=0.12–0.68) for fat mass (kg) in boys, and 0.02 (95%CI=0.01–0.03) for WHR in girls, all per μg/m3 increase in PM2.5.
  
  Conclusions
  
  Increased prenatal PM2.5 exposure was more strongly associated with indices of increased whole body size in boys and with an indicator of body shape in girls. Methods to better characterize vulnerable windows may provide insight into underlying mechanisms contributing to sex-specific associations.
  
  
• Subjects:
  Air Pollutants Anthropometry Article Bayes Theorem Body Composition Boston Child, Preschool Child Obesity Cohort Studies Female Humans Male Maternal Exposure Particulate Matter Pregnancy Prenatal Exposure Prenatal Exposure Delayed Effects Sensitive Windows Sex Difference Sex Factors Urban Population

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• Source:
  Environ Res. 158:798-805
• Pubmed ID:
  28759881
• Pubmed Central ID:
  PMC5570541
• Document Type:
  Journal Article
• Funding:
  U2C ES026555/ES/NIEHS NIH HHS/United States ; R01 MD003963/MD/NIMHD NIH HHS/United States ; T32 ES007142/ES/NIEHS NIH HHS/United States ; R01 MD006086/MD/NIMHD NIH HHS/United States ; P30 ES000002/ES/NIEHS NIH HHS/United States ; U01 HL072494/HL/NHLBI NIH HHS/United States ; R01 HL080674/HL/NHLBI NIH HHS/United States ; P30 ES023515/ES/NIEHS NIH HHS/United States ; R01 ES010932/ES/NIEHS NIH HHS/United States ; T42 OH008422/OH/NIOSH CDC HHS/United States
• Volume:
  158
• Collection(s):
  CDC Public Access
• Main Document Checksum:
  urn:sha256:6755bb847c8ef8d8854f7c7f46390a25dd66d9a6d9c3da712492c7b60871fa5f
• Download URL:
  https://stacks.cdc.gov/view/cdc/47744/cdc_47744_DS1.pdf
• File Type:
  [PDF - 543.09 KB ]