ArticleEnvironmental health perspectives2015
Autism spectrum disorder and particulate matter air pollution before, during, and after pregnancy: a nested case-control analysis within the Nurses' Health Study II Cohort.
Article in Environmental health perspectives, 2015. The graph could read no effect estimate from its abstract, so it casts no vote on the map. Cited by 166 papers, 7 of them syntheses that pooled it.
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Who cites it
166 citing papers in PubMed, 7 syntheses or guidelines pooled it.
- Hypertensive disorders of pregnancy and childhood neurodevelopment: A systematic review and meta-analysis.PLoS medicine · 2025Pooled it
- Might the fungus candida albicans a risk factor for autism? A meta-analysis study.African health sciences · 2023Pooled it
- The Association between Threatened Abortion and the Risk of Autism Spectrum Disorders among Children: A Meta-Analysis.BioMed research international · 2023Pooled it
- Evidence of susceptibility to autism risks associated with early life ambient air pollution: A systematic review.Environmental research · 2022Pooled it
- Maternal Hypertensive Pregnancy Disorders and Mental and Behavioral Disorders in the Offspring: a Review.Current hypertension reports · 2021Pooled it
- The association between gestational diabetes and ASD and ADHD: a systematic review and meta-analysis.Scientific reports · 2021Pooled it
- A Systematic Review of the Interplay Between Social Determinants and Environmental Exposures for Early-Life Outcomes.Current environmental health reports · 2016Pooled it
- Prenatal Exposure to Ambient Particulate Matter and Autism Spectrum Disorder in Children, a Case Control Study in France.Journal of autism and developmental disorders · 2026Observational
- Prenatal Air Pollution Exposure and Autism Spectrum Disorder in the ECHO Consortium.Environmental health perspectives · 2026Article
- GRADE concept article: Evaluating risk of bias in a body of evidence from studies of environmental and other exposures.Environment international · 2026Article
- Anti-asthma drug montelukast induces autistic behaviors via disrupting neuronal retinoic acid signaling.Signal transduction and targeted therapy · 2026Article
- Review
- The prenatal sex steroid theory of autism after 25 years.Nature human behaviour · 2026Review
- Association between greenspace exposure before, during, and after pregnancy and autism spectrum disorder in offspring.Journal of exposure science & environmental epidemiology · 2026Article
- Newborn metabolomics linking prenatal air pollution exposure and autism spectrum disorder risk in children.Journal of exposure science & environmental epidemiology · 2026Article
- The emerging role of gene therapy in autism spectrum disorder.Discover mental health · 2026Review
- Perinatal exposure to gaseous pollutants and autism spectrum disorder in children: A nested case-control study in the nurses' health study ii cohort.Environmental science and pollution research international · 2026Article
- Advancing understanding of the mechanisms of autism spectrum disorder through perinatal risk factors.Journal of neural transmission (Vienna, Austria : 1996) · 2026Review
- Prenatal Exposure to Wildfire and Autism in Children.Environmental science & technology · 2026Article
- Fine and ultrafine particulate matter components and autism spectrum disorder (ASD).Environment international · 2026Article
106 more citing papers are in PubMed but not listed here.
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7 authors.
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Abstract
backgroundAutism spectrum disorder (ASD) is a developmental disorder with increasing prevalence worldwide, yet has unclear etiology.
objectiveWe explored the association between maternal exposure to particulate matter (PM) air pollution and odds of ASD in her child.
methodsWe conducted a nested case-control study of participants in the Nurses' Health Study II (NHS II), a prospective cohort of 116,430 U.S. female nurses recruited in 1989, followed by biennial mailed questionnaires. Subjects were NHS II participants' children born 1990-2002 with ASD (n = 245), and children without ASD (n = 1,522) randomly selected using frequency matching for birth years. Diagnosis of ASD was based on maternal report, which was validated against the Autism Diagnostic Interview-Revised in a subset. Monthly averages of PM with diameters ≤ 2.5 μm (PM2.5) and 2.5-10 μm (PM10-2.5) were predicted from a spatiotemporal model for the continental United States and linked to residential addresses.
resultsPM2.5 exposure during pregnancy was associated with increased odds of ASD, with an adjusted odds ratio (OR) for ASD per interquartile range (IQR) higher PM2.5 (4.42 μg/m3) of 1.57 (95% CI: 1.22, 2.03) among women with the same address before and after pregnancy (160 cases, 986 controls). Associations with PM2.5 exposure 9 months before or after the pregnancy were weaker in independent models and null when all three time periods were included, whereas the association with the 9 months of pregnancy remained (OR = 1.63; 95% CI: 1.08, 2.47). The association between ASD and PM2.5 was stronger for exposure during the third trimester (OR = 1.42 per IQR increase in PM2.5; 95% CI: 1.09, 1.86) than during the first two trimesters (ORs = 1.06 and 1.00) when mutually adjusted. There was little association between PM10-2.5 and ASD.
conclusionsHigher maternal exposure to PM2.5 during pregnancy, particularly the third trimester, was associated with greater odds of a child having ASD.
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