Prenatal Exposure to Ambient PM<sub>2.5</sub> and Early Childhood Growth Impairment Risk in East Africa
Height for age is an important and widely used population-level indicator of children’s health. Morbidity trends show that stunting in young children is a significant public health concern. Recent studies point to environmental factors as an understudied area of child growth failure in Africa. Data...
| Main Authors: | , , , , |
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| Format: | Article |
| Language: | English |
| Published: |
MDPI AG
2022-11-01
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| Series: | Toxics |
| Subjects: | |
| Online Access: | https://www.mdpi.com/2305-6304/10/11/705 |
| Summary: | Height for age is an important and widely used population-level indicator of children’s health. Morbidity trends show that stunting in young children is a significant public health concern. Recent studies point to environmental factors as an understudied area of child growth failure in Africa. Data on child measurements of height-for-age and confounders were obtained from fifteen waves of the Demographic and Health Surveys (DHS) for six countries in East Africa. Monthly ambient PM<sub>2.5</sub> concentration data was retrieved from the Atmospheric Composition Analysis Group (ACAG) global surface PM<sub>2.5</sub> estimates and spatially integrated with DHS data. Generalized additive models with linear and logistic regression were used to estimate the exposure-response relationship between prenatal PM<sub>2.5</sub> and height-for-age and stunting among children under five in East Africa (EA). Fully adjusted models showed that for each 10 µg/m<sup>3</sup> increase in PM<sub>2.5</sub> concentration there is a 0.069 (CI: 0.097, 0.041) standard deviation decrease in height-for-age and 9% higher odds of being stunted. Our study identified ambient PM<sub>2.5</sub> as an environmental risk factor for lower height-for-age among young children in EA. This underscores the need to address emissions of harmful air pollutants in EA as adverse health effects are attributable to ambient PM<sub>2.5</sub> air pollution. |
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| ISSN: | 2305-6304 |