Early-life exposure to Saharan dust storms and adolescence functional disability: Evidence from Cameroon
- PMID: 36368388
- DOI: 10.1016/j.scitotenv.2022.160007
Early-life exposure to Saharan dust storms and adolescence functional disability: Evidence from Cameroon
Abstract
The direct link between early-life dust storm exposure and later-in-life outcomes is not fully understood. This study examines the association of functional disability in a large sample of adolescent Cameroonians (N = 112,855) with in-utero and early childhood exposure to Saharan dust storms. Adjusting all estimations for temperature, precipitation, time and location fixed-effects, and person and family sociodemographic characteristics, we documented adverse effects on functional disability in female adolescents due to exposure to dense dust storms during the third gestation trimester and the second postnatal trimester. We also found suggestive evidence that an effect exists for the first as well as the third through fifth postnatal trimesters. In the third trimester of gestation and the second postnatal trimester, exposure to an average length dust storm with PM10 levels beyond 190 μg/m3 increased the likelihood of disability among female adolescents by approximately 229 (95 % CI: 10-464) in 100,000. The size of the adverse effects for the other periods followed similar patterns. These results show the value of creating infrastructures to mitigate or adapt to the effects of dust storms. These endeavors should focus on communities and populations in and around the Sahara where international organizations can play a role. In addition, establishing health data infrastructures not only improves public health but also advances our understanding of the long-term effects of dust storms. This study demonstrates the importance of research on the long-term effects of early-life exposure to dust storms and the need for additional work on this topic.
Keywords: Adolescents; Cameroon; Functional disability; Postnatal exposure; Prenatal exposure; Saharan sand and dust storms.
Published by Elsevier B.V.
Conflict of interest statement
Declaration of competing interest The authors declare that they have no actual or potential competing financial interests associated with this publication. They have received no grant money for the work, have had and will have no employment interest related to the work, produced no patent (pending or applied) as a result of the work, paid no money for witness or testimony, and have no personal financial interest in the work. They confirm that the manuscript has been read and approved by the named authors and that there are no other persons who satisfied the criteria for authorship but are not listed. They confirm that they have given due consideration to the protection of intellectual property associated with this work and that there are no impediments to publication, including the timing of publication, with respect to intellectual property. In so doing, they confirm that they have followed the regulations of our institutions concerning intellectual property.
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