Early Life Exposure to Air Pollution and Autism Spectrum Disorder: Findings from a Multisite Case–Control Study

Details

• Alternative Title:
  Epidemiology
• Personal Author:
  McGuinn, Laura A. ; Windham, Gayle C. ; Kalkbrenner, Amy E. ; Bradley, Chyrise ; Di, Qian ; Croen, Lisa A. ; Fallin, M. Daniele ; Hoffman, Kate ; Ladd-Acosta, Christine ; Schwartz, Joel ; Rappold, Ana G. ; Richardson, David B. ; Neas, Lucas M. ; Gammon, Marilie D. ; Schieve, Laura A. ; Daniels, Julie L.
• Description:
  Background:
  
  Epidemiologic studies have reported associations between prenatal and early postnatal air pollution exposure and autism spectrum disorder (ASD); however, findings differ by pollutant and developmental window.
  
  Objectives:
  
  We examined associations between early life exposure to PM2.5 and ozone in association with ASD across multiple US regions.
  
  Methods:
  
  Our study participants included 674 children with confirmed ASD and 855 population controls from the Study to Explore Early Development, a multi-site case–control study of children born from 2003 to 2006 in the United States. We used a satellite-based model to assign air pollutant exposure averages during several critical periods of neurodevelopment: 3 months before pregnancy; each trimester of pregnancy; the entire pregnancy; and the first year of life. Logistic regression was used to estimate odds ratios (OR) and 95% confidence intervals (CIs), adjusting for study site, maternal age, maternal education, maternal race/ethnicity, maternal smoking, and month and year of birth.
  
  Results:
  
  The air pollution–ASD associations appeared to vary by exposure time period. Ozone exposure during the third trimester was associated with ASD, with an OR of 1.2 (95% CI: 1.1, 1.4) per 6.6 ppb increase in ozone. We additionally observed a positive association with PM2.5 exposure during the first year of life [OR = 1.3 (95% CI: 1.0, 1.6) per 1.6 μg/m3 increase in PM2.5].
  
  Conclusions:
  
  Our study corroborates previous findings of a positive association between early life air pollution exposure and ASD, and identifies a potential critical window of exposure during the late prenatal and early postnatal periods.
  
  
• Subjects:
  Air Pollution Article Autism Spectrum Disorder Ozone Particulate Matter
• Source:
  Epidemiology. 31(1):103-114
• Pubmed ID:
  31592868
• Pubmed Central ID:
  PMC6888962
• Document Type:
  Journal Article
• Funding:
  T32 ES007018/ES/NIEHS NIH HHS/United States ; T32 HD049311/HD/NICHD NIH HHS/United States ; U01 DD001205/DD/NCBDD CDC HHS/United States ; U10 DD000184/DD/NCBDD CDC HHS/United States
• Volume:
  31
• Issue:
  1
• Collection(s):
  CDC Public Access
• Main Document Checksum:
  urn:sha256:4cdcc282892d1018a07ad57f6561fbdb7d5a698b34eabfb9d957397914dfd7db
• Download URL:
  https://stacks.cdc.gov/view/cdc/83209/cdc_83209_DS1.pdf
• File Type:
  [PDF - 700.54 KB ]