The International Collaboration on Air Pollution and Pregnancy Outcomes: initial results.

Jennifer Parker (1) , David Q. Rich (2) , Svetlana V. Glinianaia (3) , Jong Han Leem (4) , Daniel Wartenberg (5) , Michelle L. Bell (6) , Matteo Bonzini (7) , Michael Brauer (8) , Lyndsey Darrow (9) , Ulrike Gehring (10) , Nelson Gouveia (11) , Paolo Grillo (12) , Eunhee Ha (13) , Edith H. van den Hooven (14, 15) , Bin Jalaludin (16, 17) , Bill M. Jesdale (18) , Johanna Lepeule (19) , Rachel Morello-Frosch (18, 20) , Geoffrey G. Morgan (16, 21) , Rémy Slama (19) , Frank H. Pierik (15) , Angela Cecilia Pesatori (22) , Sheela Sathyanarayana (23) , Juhee Seo (13) , Matthew Strickland (9) , Lillian Tamburic (24) , Tracey J. Woodruff (25)

1 Centers for Disease Control and Prevention
2 Department of Community and Preventive Medicine
3 Institute of Health and Society
4 Department of Occupational & Environmental Medicine
5 UMDNJ-Robert Wood Johnson Medical School
6 YSM - Yale School of Medicine [New Haven, Connecticut]
7 Department of Experimental Medicine
8 UBC - University of British Columbia
9 Department of Environmental Health
10 Risk Assessment Sciences Institute
11 Department of Preventive Medicine, School of Medicine
12 Epidemiology Unite
13 Department of Preventive Medicine
14 The Generation R Study Group
15 Department of Environment and Health
16 North Coast Area Health Service
17 Centre for Research, Evidence Management and Surveillance
18 ESPM - Department of Environmental Science, Policy, and Management [Berkeley]
19 INSERM U823 - Institut d'oncologie/développement Albert Bonniot de Grenoble
20 School of Public Health
21 Northern Rivers University Department of Rural Health
22 Department of Occupational and Environmental Health
23 Seattle Children's Research Institute
24 Centre for Health Services and Policy Research
25 Center for Reproductive Health and the Environment

BACKGROUND: The findings of prior studies of air pollution effects on adverse birth outcomes are difficult to synthesize because of differences in study design. OBJECTIVES: The International Collaboration on Air Pollution and Pregnancy Outcomes was formed to understand how differences in research methods contribute to variations in findings. We initiated a feasibility study to a) assess the ability of geographically diverse research groups to analyze their data sets using a common protocol and b) perform location-specific analyses of air pollution effects on birth weight using a standardized statistical approach. METHODS: Fourteen research groups from nine countries participated. We developed a protocol to estimate odds ratios (ORs) for the association between particulate matter ≤ 10 μm in aerodynamic diameter (PM₁₀) and low birth weight (LBW) among term births, adjusted first for socioeconomic status (SES) and second for additional location-specific variables. RESULTS: Among locations with data for the PM₁₀ analysis, ORs estimating the relative risk of term LBW associated with a 10-μg/m³ increase in average PM₁₀ concentration during pregnancy, adjusted for SES, ranged from 0.63 [95% confidence interval (CI), 0.30-1.35] for the Netherlands to 1.15 (95% CI, 0.61-2.18) for Vancouver, with six research groups reporting statistically significant adverse associations. We found evidence of statistically significant heterogeneity in estimated effects among locations. CONCLUSIONS: Variability in PM₁₀-LBW relationships among study locations remained despite use of a common statistical approach. A more detailed meta-analysis and use of more complex protocols for future analysis may uncover reasons for heterogeneity across locations. However, our findings confirm the potential for a diverse group of researchers to analyze their data in a standardized way to improve understanding of air pollution effects on birth outcomes.

Mots clés: Air Pollution; Birth Weight; ICAPPO; Low Birth Weight; Particulate Matter Pregnancy

Domaines: Santé publique et épidémiologie

Jennifer Parker, David Q. Rich, Svetlana V. Glinianaia, Jong Han Leem, Daniel Wartenberg, et al.. The International Collaboration on Air Pollution and Pregnancy Outcomes: initial results.: Air Pollution and Low Birth Weight. Environmental Health Perspectives, 2011, 119 (7), pp.1023-8. ⟨10.1289/ehp.1002725⟩. ⟨inserm-00565831⟩