ArticleEnvironmental health : a global access science source2014
Traffic-related air pollution and obesity formation in children: a longitudinal, multilevel analysis.
Article in Environmental health : a global access science source, 2014. The graph could read no effect estimate from its abstract, so it casts no vote on the map. Cited by 129 papers, 10 of them syntheses that pooled it.
What it found
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The abstract states no effect estimate the extractor could read, or names no intervention and outcome on the map, so this paper lights no cell and moves no belief. It is still indexed, cited and linked below.
The trial behind it
Trials whose registry record cites this paper, or whose number appears in the abstract. A trial that started after this paper was published is citing it as background, not reporting it.
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Who cites it
129 citing papers in PubMed, 10 syntheses or guidelines pooled it, 261 citations in OpenAlex.
- Ambient air pollution and childhood obesity from infancy to late childhood: An individual participant data meta-analysis of 10 European birth cohorts.Environment international · 2025Pooled it
- Indoor and outdoor air pollution and couple fecundability: a systematic review.Human reproduction update · 2023Pooled it
- Growing up green: a systematic review of the influence of greenspace on youth development and health outcomes.Journal of exposure science & environmental epidemiology · 2022Pooled it
- The Association between Childhood Exposure to Ambient Air Pollution and Obesity: A Systematic Review and Meta-Analysis.International journal of environmental research and public health · 2022Pooled it
- The built environment as determinant of childhood obesity: A systematic literature review.Obesity reviews : an official journal of the International Association for the Study of Obesity · 2022Pooled it
- Exposure to PMInternational journal of environmental research and public health · 2021Pooled it
- Traffic-related environmental factors and childhood obesity: A systematic review and meta-analysis.Obesity reviews : an official journal of the International Association for the Study of Obesity · 2021Pooled it
- State-of-the-art of measures of the obesogenic environment for children.Obesity reviews : an official journal of the International Association for the Study of Obesity · 2021Pooled it
- Outdoor Air Pollution and Brain Structure and Function From Across Childhood to Young Adulthood: A Methodological Review of Brain MRI Studies.Frontiers in public health · 2019Pooled it
- Impact of ambient air pollution on obesity: a systematic review.International journal of obesity (2005) · 2018Pooled it
- Early-Life Air Pollution Exposure Is Associated with the Infant Gut Microbiome and Fecal Metabolome in the First Two Years of Life.Research report (Health Effects Institute) · 2026Article
- Investigating the relationship between environmental air pollution exposure and abnormal gestational weight gain in twin pregnancies: a retrospective study.Journal of endocrinological investigation · 2026Article
- REACH-OUT: Race, Ethnicity, and Air Pollution in COVID-19 Hospitalization OUTcomes.Research report (Health Effects Institute) · 2025Article
- Prolonged exposure to polluted air and risk of overweight and central obesity in Chinese children and adolescents.BMC public health · 2025Article
- Neighborhood environmental vulnerability factors strongly drove COVID-19 fatality and excess all-cause mortality in New York City, while long-term air pollutant associations were weak and varied.The Science of the total environment · 2025Article
- Childhood Exposure to Air Pollution, Body Mass Index Trajectories, and Insulin Resistance Among Young Adults.JAMA network open · 2025Article
- Green Cities, Healthier Children: The Effect of Expanding Urban Green Space on Body Weight for Primary School Starters.Health economics · 2025Article
- Associations of preconception air pollution exposure with growth trajectory in young children: A prospective cohort study.Environmental research · 2025Article
- Impact of childhood exposure to traffic related air pollution on adult cardiometabolic health: Exploring the role of perceived stress.Environmental research · 2024Article
- The Built Environment and Childhood Obesity.Pediatric clinics of North America · 2024Review
69 more citing papers are in PubMed but not listed here.
Corrections and comments
PubMed lists nothing against this paper. Absence here is not a guarantee, only a check that was made.
Authors and funding
10 authors at 3 institutions in 1 country.
Funding
Abstract
backgroundBiologically plausible mechanisms link traffic-related air pollution to metabolic disorders and potentially to obesity. Here we sought to determine whether traffic density and traffic-related air pollution were positively associated with growth in body mass index (BMI = kg/m2) in children aged 5-11 years.
methodsParticipants were drawn from a prospective cohort of children who lived in 13 communities across Southern California (N = 4550). Children were enrolled while attending kindergarten and first grade and followed for 4 years, with height and weight measured annually. Dispersion models were used to estimate exposure to traffic-related air pollution. Multilevel models were used to estimate and test traffic density and traffic pollution related to BMI growth. Data were collected between 2002-2010 and analyzed in 2011-12.
resultsTraffic pollution was positively associated with growth in BMI and was robust to adjustment for many confounders. The effect size in the adjusted model indicated about a 13.6% increase in annual BMI growth when comparing the lowest to the highest tenth percentile of air pollution exposure, which resulted in an increase of nearly 0.4 BMI units on attained BMI at age 10. Traffic density also had a positive association with BMI growth, but this effect was less robust in multivariate models.
conclusionsTraffic pollution was positively associated with growth in BMI in children aged 5-11 years. Traffic pollution may be controlled via emission restrictions; changes in land use that promote jobs-housing balance and use of public transit and hence reduce vehicle miles traveled; promotion of zero emissions vehicles; transit and car-sharing programs; or by limiting high pollution traffic, such as diesel trucks, from residential areas or places where children play outdoors, such as schools and parks. These measures may have beneficial effects in terms of reduced obesity formation in children.
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Registered trials
Read under generation 80e0d062 · epoch 390. Bibliography from PubMed, PubMed Central and OpenAlex; grants from NIH RePORTER; trial links from ClinicalTrials.gov; estimates, votes and beliefs from the OpenQuestion graph.