School of Clinical Medicine, Discipline of Psychiatry and Mental Health, Faculty of Medicine and Health, University of New South Wales, Sydney, NSW, 2052, Australia.
Justice Health and Forensic Mental Health Network, Sydney, NSW, Australia.
Soc Psychiatry Psychiatr Epidemiol. 2024 Jan;59(1):87-98. doi: 10.1007/s00127-023-02533-w. Epub 2023 Jul 20.
Air pollution has been linked to a variety of childhood mental health problems, but results are inconsistent across studies and the effect of exposure timing is unclear. We examined the associations between air pollution exposure at two time-points in early development and psychotic-like experiences (PLEs), and emotional and conduct symptoms, assessed in middle childhood (mean age 11.5 years).
Participants were 19,932 children selected from the NSW Child Development Study (NSW-CDS) with available linked multi-agency data from birth, and self-reported psychotic-like experiences (PLEs) and psychopathology at age 11-12 years (middle childhood). We used binomial logistic regression to examine associations between exposure to nitrogen dioxide (NO) and particulate matter less than 2.5 μm (PM) at two time-points (birth and middle childhood) and middle childhood PLEs, and emotional and conduct symptoms, with consideration of socioeconomic status and other potential confounding factors in adjusted models.
In fully adjusted models, NO exposure in middle childhood was associated with concurrent PLEs (OR = 1.10, 95% CI = 1.02-1.20). Similar associations with PLEs were found for middle childhood exposure to PM (OR = 1.05, 95% CI = 1.01-1.09). Neither NO nor PM exposure was associated with emotional symptoms or conduct problems in this study.
This study highlights the need for a better understanding of potential mechanisms of action of NO in the brain during childhood.
空气污染与多种儿童心理健康问题有关，但研究结果不一致，暴露时间的影响尚不清楚。我们研究了儿童早期两个时间点的空气污染暴露与类精神病体验（PLEs）以及情绪和行为症状之间的关系，这些症状在儿童中期（平均年龄 11.5 岁）进行评估。
参与者是从新南威尔士州儿童发展研究（NSW-CDS）中选择的 19932 名儿童，他们有从出生开始的可用多机构数据，并在 11-12 岁（儿童中期）时报告了类精神病体验（PLEs）和精神病理学。我们使用二项逻辑回归来检查在两个时间点（出生和儿童中期）暴露于二氧化氮（NO）和小于 2.5μm 的颗粒物（PM）与儿童中期 PLEs 以及情绪和行为症状之间的关联，并在调整后的模型中考虑了社会经济地位和其他潜在的混杂因素。
在完全调整的模型中，儿童中期的 NO 暴露与同时发生的 PLEs 相关（OR=1.10，95%CI=1.02-1.20）。儿童中期暴露于 PM 与 PLEs 也存在类似的关联（OR=1.05，95%CI=1.01-1.09）。在这项研究中，NO 或 PM 暴露均与情绪症状或行为问题无关。
本研究强调了需要更好地了解儿童期大脑中 NO 的潜在作用机制。
