Skip to main page content
U.S. flag

An official website of the United States government

Dot gov

The .gov means it’s official.
Federal government websites often end in .gov or .mil. Before sharing sensitive information, make sure you’re on a federal government site.

Https

The site is secure.
The https:// ensures that you are connecting to the official website and that any information you provide is encrypted and transmitted securely.

Access keys NCBI Homepage MyNCBI Homepage Main Content Main Navigation
. 2021 Feb;28(8):9701-9711.
doi: 10.1007/s11356-020-11274-1. Epub 2020 Nov 5.

Association between exposure to air pollution during intrauterine life and cephalic circumference of the newborn

Mariana Azevedo Carvalho  1 , Karen Hettfleisch  1 , Agatha S Rodrigues  1   2 , Alexandra Benachi  3 , Sandra Elisabete Vieira  4 , Silvia R D M Saldiva  5 , Paulo Hilário N Saldiva  6 , Rossana Pulcineli Vieira Francisco  1 , Lisandra Stein Bernardes  7
Affiliations

Association between exposure to air pollution during intrauterine life and cephalic circumference of the newborn

Mariana Azevedo Carvalho et al. Environ Sci Pollut Res Int. 2021 Feb.

Abstract

It has been observed that air pollution can affect newborn health due to the negative effects of pollutants on pregnancy development. However, few studies have evaluated the impact of maternal exposure to urban air pollution on head circumference (HC) at birth. Reduced head growth during pregnancy may be associated with neurocognitive deficits in childhood. The objectives of this study were to evaluate the association between maternal exposure to air pollution and HC at birth and to provide context with a systematic review to investigate this association. This was a prospective study of low-risk pregnant women living in São Paulo, Brazil. Exposure to pollutants, namely, nitrogen dioxide (NO2) and ozone (O3), was measured during each trimester using passive personal samplers. We measured newborn HC until 24 h after birth. We used multiple linear regression models to evaluate the association between pollutants and HC while controlling for known determinants of pregnancy. To perform the systematic review, four different electronic databases were searched through November 2018: CENTRAL, EMBASE, LILACS, and MEDLINE. We selected longitudinal or transversal designs associating air pollution and HC at birth. Two reviewers evaluated the inclusion criteria and risk of bias and extracted data from the included papers. Thirteen studies were selected for the systematic review. We evaluated 391 patients, and we did not observe a significant association between air pollution and HC. Regarding the systematic review, 13 studies were selected for the systematic review, 8 studies showed an inverse association between maternal exposure to pollutants and HC, 4 showed no association, and one observed a direct association. In the city of São Paulo, maternal exposure to pollutants was not significantly associated with HC at birth. The systematic review suggested an inverse association between air pollution and HC at birth.

Keywords: Air pollution; Head circumference; Maternal exposure; Nitrogen dioxide; Ozone; Personal monitoring.

PubMed Disclaimer

References

    1. Arbex MA, Pereira LA, Carvalho-Oliveira R, Saldiva PH, Braga AL (2014) The effect of air pollution on pneumonia-related emergency department visits in a region of extensive sugar cane plantations: a 30-month time-series study. J Epidemiol Community Health 68(7):669–674. https://doi.org/10.1136/jech-2013-203709 - DOI
    1. Babson SG, Henderson NB (1974) Fetal undergrowth: relation of head growth to later intellectual performance. Pediatrics 53(6):890–894
    1. Bertin M, Chevrier C, Serrano T, Monfort C, Cordier S, Viel JF (2015) Sex-specific differences in fetal growth in newborns exposed prenatally to traffic-related air pollution in the PELAGIE mother-child cohort (Brittany, France). Environ Res 142:680–687. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.envres.2015.09.006 - DOI
    1. Brasil. Ministério da Saúde (2011) Secretaria de Atenção à Saúde. Departamento de Ações Programáticas e Estratégicas. Atenção à saúde do recém-nascido: guia para os prossionais de saúde – Brasília : Ministério da Saúde. 4 v. : il. – (Série A. Normas e Manuais Técnicas)
    1. Canfield MA, Ramadhani TA, Langlois PH, Waller DK (2006) Residential mobility patterns and exposure misclassification in epidemiologic studies of birth defects. J Expo Sci Environ Epidemiol 16(6):538–543. https://doi.org/10.1038/sj.jes.7500501 - DOI

Publication types

LinkOut - more resources