Background: Numerous studies have examined associations between air pollution and pregnancy outcomes, but most have been restricted to urban populations living near monitors.
Objectives: We examined the association between pregnancy outcomes and fine particulate matter in a large national study including urban and rural areas.
Methods: Analyses were based on approximately 3 million singleton live births in Canada between 1999 and 2008. Exposures to PM2.5 (particles of median aerodynamic diameter ≤ 2.5 μm) were assigned by mapping the mother’s postal code to a monthly surface based on a national land use regression model that incorporated observations from fixed-site monitoring stations and satellite-derived estimates of PM2.5. Generalized estimating equations were used to examine the association between PM2.5 and preterm birth (gestational age < 37 weeks), term low birth weight (< 2,500 g), small for gestational age (SGA; < 10th percentile of birth weight for gestational age), and term birth weight, adjusting for individual covariates and neighborhood socioeconomic status (SES).
Results: In fully adjusted models, a 10-μg/m3 increase in PM2.5 over the entire pregnancy was associated with SGA (odds ratio = 1.04; 95% CI 1.01, 1.07) and reduced term birth weight (–20.5 g; 95% CI –24.7, –16.4). Associations varied across subgroups based on maternal place of birth and period (1999–2003 vs. 2004–2008).
Conclusions: This study, based on approximately 3 million births across Canada and employing PM2.5 estimates from a national spatiotemporal model, provides further evidence linking PM2.5 and pregnancy outcomes.
1Population Studies Division, Health Canada, Vancouver, British Columbia, Canada; 2Population Studies Division, Health Canada, Ottawa, Ontario, Canada; 3Geographic Information Health and Exposure Science Laboratory (GIS HEAL), School of Public Health, University of California, Berkeley, Berkeley, California, USA; 4Department of Environmental Health Sciences, Fielding School of Public Health, University of California, Los Angeles, Los Angeles, California, USA; 5Department of Sociology, University of New Brunswick, Fredericton, New Brunswick, Canada; 6Special Surveys Division, Statistics Canada, Ottawa, Ontario, Canada; 7Department of Physics and Atmospheric Science, Dalhousie University, Halifax, Nova Scotia, Canada; 8Harvard-Smithsonian Center for Astrophysics, Cambridge, Massachusetts, USA; 9Vaccine and Immunization Program Surveillance Division, Public Health Agency of Canada, Ottawa, Canada; 10Health Analysis Division, Statistics Canada, Ottawa, Ontario, Canada; 11Maternal, Child and Youth Health, Surveillance and Epidemiology Division, Public Health Agency of Canada, Ottawa, Ontario, Canada; 12Air Health Science Division, Health Canada, Ottawa, Ontario, Canada
Recommended Citation:
David M. Stieb,1 Li Chen,2 Bernardo S. Beckerman,et al. Associations of Pregnancy Outcomes and PM2.5 in a National Canadian Study[J]. Environmental Health Perspectives,2016-01-01,Volume 124(Issue 2):243