Maternal PM exposure during gestation and offspring neurodevelopment: Findings from a prospective birth cohort study.

Emerging data have suggested the potential role of prenatal PM exposure as a neurotoxin for offspring. However, the existing results are equivocal, and no study has examined the effects of complex chemical constituents of the particular matter on offspring neurodevelopment. Therefore, in a prospective birth cohort study conducted in Jiangsu, China, we aimed to investigate the association between prenatal exposure to PM and the neurodevelopment in infants, and further assess the effects of specific chemical constituents of PM. A total of 1531 children who had available data on daily prenatal PM exposure and completed assessment on neurodevelopment at 1 year old were enrolled. We used the high-performance machine-learning model to estimate daily PM exposure concentrations at 1 km × 1 km spatial resolution. The combined geospatial-statistical model was applied to evaluate average concentrations of six chemical constituents [organic matter (OM), black carbon (BC), sulfate (SO), nitrate (NO), ammonium (NH), and soil dust (Dust)]. The neurodevelopment of children was assessed using Bayley-III Screening Test. After adjusting for confounding factors, the risk of non-optimal gross motor development increased by 31 % for every 10 μg/m increase in average PM exposure during gestation (aRR: 1.31; 95 % CI: 1.04, 1.64). Further analysis of PM constituents showed that prenatally exposed to high SO was associated with the risk of non-optimal gross motor development (aRR: 1.40; 95 % CI: 1.08, 1.81). Null associations were observed for the rest four neurodevelopment domains. Collectively, our study suggested that prenatal exposure to PM, particularly with high SO concentration, was associated with children's non-optimal gross motor development at 1 year old. The short- and long-term influences of perinatal PM exposure on children's neurodevelopment warrant further investigation.