Exposure to ozone during pregnancy may significantly increase the risk of rapid weight gain and obesity in children during their first 2 years of life, according to a new study.
In the study, published in Eco-Environment & Health, investigators tracked the growth of 4,909 children born to mothers enrolled in the Shanghai Maternal-Child Pairs Cohort. The median ozone concentration during pregnancy was 94.00 μg/m³. Each 10 μg/m³ increase in prenatal ozone exposure was associated with a 0.084-, 0.048-, and 0.082-unit increase in the children's BMI-for-age Z score, weight-for-age Z score, and weight-for-length Z score, respectively.
Using innovative modeling techniques, the investigators estimated prenatal ozone exposures for each mother-child pair based on their home address. They discovered that each 10 μg/m³ increase in exposure was linked to a 1.355-fold increased risk of overweight and obesity, 1.396-fold increased risk of accelerated BMI growth, and 0.786-fold decreased risk of accelerated length growth in the children.
These associations remained significant even after accounting for co-exposure to other air pollutants like PM2.5, PM10, NO2, SO2, and CO. The findings also held true after excluding preterm births in sensitivity analyses.
While ozone is a common air pollutant, the findings provided evidence linking prenatal exposure to accelerated postnatal weight gain and increased obesity risk. The results indicated that the prenatal environment may play a critical role in shaping children's growth and health outcomes.
This research highlighted the potential importance of identifying and mitigating harmful environmental exposures during pregnancy to promote healthy child development and prevent obesity. Further studies are needed to confirm these findings and elucidate the biological mechanisms underlying the observed associations.