ISGlobal, Barcelona, Spain; Universitat Pompeu Fabra, Barcelona, Spain; Spanish Consortium for Research on Epidemiology and Public Health (CIBERESP), Instituto de Salud Carlos III, Madrid, Spain.
Spanish Consortium for Research on Epidemiology and Public Health (CIBERESP), Instituto de Salud Carlos III, Madrid, Spain; Department of Statistics and Operational Research, University of Valencia, Valencia, Spain; Epidemiology and Environmental Health Joint Research Unit, Jaume I University - University of Valencia, FISABIO, Valencia, Spain.
Environ Int. 2024 Apr;186:108604. doi: 10.1016/j.envint.2024.108604. Epub 2024 Mar 26.
Air pollution exposure during pregnancy and childhood has been linked to executive function impairment in children, however, very few studies have assessed these two exposure periods jointly to identify susceptible periods of exposure. We sought to identify potential periods of susceptibility of nitrogen dioxide (NO) exposure from conception to childhood on attentional function and working memory in school-aged children.
Within the Spanish INMA Project, we estimated residential daily NO exposures during pregnancy and up to 6 years of childhood using land use regression models (n = 1,703). We assessed attentional function at 4-6 years and 6-8 years, using the Conners Kiddie Continuous Performance Test and the Attention Network Test, respectively, and working memory at 6-8 years, using the N-back task. We used distributed lag non-linear models to assess the periods of susceptibility of each outcome, adjusting for potential confounders and correcting for multiple testing. We also stratified all models by sex.
Higher exposure to NO between 1.3 and 1.6 years of age was associated with higher hit reaction time standard error (HRT-SE) (0.14 ms (95 % CI 0.05; 0.22) per 10 μg/m increase in NO) and between 1.5 and 2.2 years of age with more omission errors (1.02 (95 % CI 1.01; 1.03) of the attentional function test at 4-6 years. Higher exposure to NO between 0.3 and 2.2 years was associated with higher HRT-SE (10.61 ms (95 % CI 3.46; 17.75) at 6-8 years only in boys. We found no associations between exposure to NO and working memory at 6-8 years.
Our findings suggest that NO exposure during the first two years of life is associated with poorer attentional function in children from 4 to 8 years of age, especially in boys. These findings highlight the importance of exploring long-term effects of traffic-related air pollution exposure in older age groups.
孕期和儿童期暴露于空气污染与儿童执行功能受损有关，但很少有研究同时评估这两个暴露期，以确定易暴露期。我们试图确定从受孕到儿童期，二氧化氮（NO）暴露对学龄儿童注意力功能和工作记忆的潜在易感性。
在西班牙 INMA 项目中，我们使用基于土地利用的回归模型（n=1703）估算了孕期和儿童期 6 岁内的住宅日 NO 暴露量。我们分别在 4-6 岁和 6-8 岁时使用康纳儿童连续测试和注意网络测试评估注意力功能，在 6-8 岁时使用 n 回任务评估工作记忆。我们使用分布滞后非线性模型评估每个结果的易感期，调整潜在混杂因素并进行多重检验校正。我们还按性别对所有模型进行了分层。
1.3-1.6 岁时 NO 暴露增加与更高的 hit 反应时标准误差（HRT-SE）（每 10μg/m 增加 0.14ms（95%CI 0.05；0.22））相关，1.5-2.2 岁时与注意力功能测试中的更多遗漏错误（4-6 岁时的 1.02（95%CI 1.01；1.03））相关。0.3-2.2 岁时的 NO 暴露增加与 6-8 岁时的 HRT-SE 增加（仅在男孩中为 10.61ms（95%CI 3.46；17.75））相关。在 6-8 岁时，我们没有发现 NO 暴露与工作记忆之间的关联。
我们的研究结果表明，生命最初两年的 NO 暴露与 4 至 8 岁儿童注意力功能较差有关，尤其是在男孩中。这些发现强调了探索交通相关空气污染长期暴露对老年人群影响的重要性。
