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Prenatal exposure to air pollution and the risk of eczema in childhood: a systematic review and meta-analysis

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Abstract 

An increasing number of studies investigated the association between air pollution during pregnancy and the risk of eczema in offspring. However, no meta-analysis has confirmed the existence and size of their association to date. We systematically searched PubMed, Web of Science, Cochrane Library, and Embase databases to select the observational controlled studies published from the inception date to October 16, 2021. Quality evaluation was guided by the Newcastle–Ottawa Scale (NOS). Sensitivity analysis was applied to assess the impact of each included study on the combined effects, and publication bias was examined by Begg’s tests and Egger’s tests. A total of 12 articles involving 69,374 participants met our eligibility criteria. A significant association between the maternal exposure to NO2 (per 10 μg/m3 increased) and childhood eczema was observed, with a pooled risk estimate of 1.13 (95% CI: 1.06–1.19), but no association was observed between exposure to PM10, PM2.5, and SO2 and the risk of eczema in offspring. Besides, the effect of maternal NO2 exposure on childhood eczema was significant in the first and second trimesters, but not in the third trimester. There was notable variability in geographic location (p = 0.037) and air pollutant concentration (p = 0.031) based on meta-regression. Our findings indicated that prenatal exposure to NO2 was a risk factor for elevated risk of eczema in childhood, especially in the first and second trimesters. Further studies with larger sample sizes considering different constituents of air pollution and various exposure windows are needed to validate these associations.

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The datasets used or analyzed during the current research are available from the corresponding author on request.

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Acknowledgements

The authors of this study would like to thank all authors of the studies included in this paper for their efforts to provide information on the relevant results.

Funding

This work was supported by grants from the National Natural Science Foundation of China (81973663, 22106143); the Natural Science Foundation of Zhejiang Province (LQ20H260008, LQ20B07005).

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Department of Epidemiology, School of Public Health, Zhejiang Chinese Medical University, 548 Binwen Road, Hangzhou, 310053, China

    Dengyuan Yue, Ting Shen, Jiaqing Mao, Yingying Mao & Ding Ye

  2. Department of Epidemiology and Biostatistics, School of Public Health and Management, Wenzhou Medical University, Wenzhou, Zhejiang, China

    Qing Su

  3. School of Medical Technology and Information Engineering, Zhejiang Chinese Medical University, Hangzhou, 310053, China

    Xiaoqing Ye

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Contributions

Dengyuan Yue conceived the study. Dengyuan Yue and Jiaqing Mao searched the databases and checked them according to the eligible criteria and exclusion criteria. Ting Shen helped develop search strategies. Dengyuan Yue, Ting Shen, and Qing Su analyzed the data and wrote the draft of the paper. Ding Ye contributed to reviewing or revising the paper. Ding Ye, Xiaoqing Ye and Yingying Mao are the guarantors of this work. All authors read and approve the final manuscript.

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Yue, D., Shen, T., Mao, J. et al. Prenatal exposure to air pollution and the risk of eczema in childhood: a systematic review and meta-analysis. Environ Sci Pollut Res 29, 48233–48249 (2022). https://doi.org/10.1007/s11356-022-20844-4

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