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Analysis of short-term and sub-chronic effects of ambient air pollution on preterm birth in central China

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Abstract

Recently, an increasing number of studies have reported the possible linkage between maternal exposure to ambient air pollution and adverse birth outcomes. This retrospective cohort study aimed to evaluate the effect of short-term and sub-chronic exposure to air pollutants on preterm birth occurred in Shiyan and Jingzhou, Hubei province, China from 2014 to 2016. General additive models (GAM) were performed to examine the impact of the daily and cumulative weekly air pollutants exposure. The non-linear patterns between adverse birth outcomes and weather condition were assessed by including penalized smoothing splines in the model. The demographic characteristics of pregnant women were also included in the model as covariates. A total of 16,035 cases were analyzed. Significant short-term effects of air pollution exposure at lag 1 day on preterm birth were observed. In adjusted single-pollutant city-specific model, the association between acute air pollutant exposure and preterm birth was significant in Shiyan (PM2.5: OR = 1.066, 95% CI 1.027, 1.106; PM10: OR = 1.048, 95% CI 1.022, 1.076; O3: OR = 1.029, 95% CI 1.004, 1.056) and Jingzhou (PM2.5: OR = 1.037, 95% CI 1.008, 1.068; PM10: OR = 1.025, 95% CI 1.007, 1.043; SO2: OR = 1.082, 95% CI 1.023, 1.144; NO2: OR = 1.211, 95% CI 1.098, 1.335) per 10 μg/m3 increment. Also, weekly average cumulative air pollution exposure was significantly associated with preterm birth in both areas.

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Funding

This work was supported by the National Natural Science Foundation of China (Grant No. 81402743), the Fundamental Research Funds for the Central Universities (Grant No. 2042016kf0165), and the Planning Project of Innovation and Entrepreneurship Training of National Undergraduate of Wuhan University (Grant No. 201610486113).

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Department of Global Health, School of Health Sciences, Wuhan University, 115# Donghu Road, Wuhan, 430071, China

    Xiangyu Li, Feifei Liu, Yuxin Wang, Xuhao Yang, Junfeng Yu, Xiaowei Xue, Anqi Jiao & Hao Xiang

  2. Department of Environmental and Occupational Health Sciences, University of Washington, 1959 NE Pacific Street, Seattle, WA, 98195, USA

    Yisi Liu

  3. Environmental Health Laboratory, Department of Public Health Sciences, University of Hawaii at Manoa, 1960 East-West Rd, Biomed Bldg, D105, Honolulu, HI, 96822, USA

    Yuanan Lu

  4. State Key Laboratory of Information Engineering in Surveying, Mapping and Remote Sensing, Wuhan University, Wuhan, 430079, China

    Liqiao Tian & Shiquan Deng

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  1. Xiangyu Li
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Correspondence to Hao Xiang.

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Li, X., Liu, Y., Liu, F. et al. Analysis of short-term and sub-chronic effects of ambient air pollution on preterm birth in central China. Environ Sci Pollut Res 25, 19028–19039 (2018). https://doi.org/10.1007/s11356-018-2061-8

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  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s11356-018-2061-8

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