Prenatal exposure to PM10 and NO2 and children's neurodevelopment from birth to 24 months of age: Mothers and Children's Environmental Health (MOCEH) study

Introduction: Previous studies have suggested adverse effects of maternal exposure to air pollution on neurodevelopment in early childhood. Objectives: We aimed to investigate the association between prenatal exposure to particulates of less than 10 mu m in diameter (PM10) and nitrogen dioxide (NO2) and neurodevelopment in children during the first 24 months of their lives. Methods: The MOCEH study is a prospective birth cohort study in South Korea. Average exposure levels to PM10 and NO2 during the entire pregnancy were estimated using the inverse distance weighting (IDW) method. A total of 520 mother-child pairs who completed neurodevelopmental assessments using the Korean Bayley Scale of Infant Development II (K-BSID-II) more than once at ages of 6, 12 and 24 months were included. Mental developmental index (MDI) and psychomotor developmental index (PDI) from the K-BSID-II were used as outcome variables. Results: There were negative associations between maternal exposure to PM10 and MDI (beta = 2.83; p = 0.003) and PDI (beta = -3.00; p = 0.002) throughout the first 24 months of life as determined by the generalized estimating equation (GEE) model. Maternal NO2 exposure was related with impairment of psychomotor development (beta = -1.30; p = 0.05) but not with cognitive function (beta = -0.84; p = 0.20). In a multiple linear regression model, there were significant effects of prenatal air pollution exposure on MDI (PM10:beta = -4.60; p < 0.001, NO2:beta = -3.12; p < 0.001) and PDI (PM10: beta = -7.24; p < 0.001, NO2:beta = -3.01; p < 0.001) at 6 months, but no significant association was found at 12 and 24 months of age. Conclusions: The findings suggest that exposure to air pollution may result in delayed neurodevelopment in early childhood. (C) 2014 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.