ArticlePopulation health metrics2015
Ambient air pollution and adverse birth outcomes: a natural experiment study.
Article in Population health metrics, 2015. The graph could read no effect estimate from its abstract, so it casts no vote on the map. Cited by 22 papers, 5 of them syntheses that pooled it.
What it found
Each row is one number read from the abstract, on the scale the paper reported it, with its interval. Left of the dashed line favours the treatment, right favours the comparator. Under each row is the sentence it came from. New to these charts? A ten-minute tutorial.
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.
Neither the registry nor the abstract names a trial number. If this is a trial report, that itself is worth knowing.
Who cites it
22 citing papers in PubMed, 5 syntheses or guidelines pooled it.
- Association between atmospheric particulate matter pollution during pregnancy and premature birth in China: a meta-analysis.Frontiers in public health · 2025Pooled it
- Exposure to ambient air pollutions and its association with adverse birth outcomes: a systematic review and meta-analysis of epidemiological studies.Frontiers in public health · 2024Pooled it
- Relationship Between Outdoor Air Pollutant Exposure and Premature Delivery in China- Systematic Review and Meta-Analysis.International journal of public health · 2023Pooled it
- Application of the navigation guide systematic review methodology to evaluate prenatal exposure to particulate matter air pollution and infant birth weight.Environment international · 2021Pooled it
- The association between ambient air pollution and selected adverse pregnancy outcomes in China: A systematic review.The Science of the total environment · 2017Pooled it
- Robust Statistical Approaches to Understanding the Causal Effect of Air Pollution Mixtures.Research report (Health Effects Institute) · 2025Article
- Assessing ambient air pollution's effects on birth outcomes: a Scottish IVF cohort study (2010 -2018).Environmental health : a global access science source · 2025Article
- Effects of in-utero personal exposure to PMScientific reports · 2023Article
- Before the first breath: why ambient air pollution and climate change should matter to neonatal-perinatal providers.Journal of perinatology : official journal of the California Perinatal Association · 2023Review
- Effects of In-Utero Personal Exposure to PM2.5 Sources and Components on Birthweight.Research square · 2023Article
- In-utero personal exposure to PMEnvironmental advances · 2022Article
- Invited Perspective: Air Pollution and Autism Spectrum Disorder: Are We There Yet?Environmental health perspectives · 2022Article
- The Association between Preterm Birth and Ambient Air Pollution Exposure in Shiyan, China, 2015-2017.International journal of environmental research and public health · 2021Article
- The Association Between Air Pollution and Low Birth Weight and Preterm Labor in Ahvaz, Iran.International journal of women's health · 2020Article
- Acute air pollution exposure and NICU admission: a case-crossover analysis.Annals of epidemiology · 2019Article
- Review
- Review
- Retirements of Coal and Oil Power Plants in California: Association With Reduced Preterm Birth Among Populations Nearby.American journal of epidemiology · 2018Article
- Accountability studies of air pollution and health effects: lessons learned and recommendations for future natural experiment opportunities.Environment international · 2017Review
- Environmental chemicals and preterm birth: Biological mechanisms and the state of the science.Current epidemiology reports · 2017Article
Corrections and comments
PubMed lists nothing against this paper. Absence here is not a guarantee, only a check that was made.
Authors and funding
8 authors.
Funding
No grant is acknowledged in the PubMed record.
Abstract
backgroundRadical regulations to improve air quality, including traffic control, were implemented prior to and during the 2008 Beijing Olympic Games. Consequently, ambient concentrations of nitrogen dioxide (NO2) and particular matter 10 micrometers or less (PM10), were reduced in a distinct and short window of time, which presented a natural experiment for testing the relationships between maternal exposure to PM10 and NO2 during pregnancy and adverse birth outcomes.
methodsWe estimated the effect of PM10 and NO2 exposure during each trimester of gestation on the risk of preterm birth among live births and the birth weight among term babies. The data were based on 50,874 live births delivered between January 1, 2006 and December 31, 2010 at the Beijing Haidian Maternal and Child Health Hospital. Air monitoring data for the same period were obtained from the Beijing Municipal Environmental Monitoring Center.
resultsAmong full-term births, maternal exposure to NO2 in the third trimester predicted birth weight, with each 10-unit increment (per 10 ug/m(3)) in NO2 concentration associated with a 13.78 g (95 % confidence interval: -21.12, -6.43; p < 0.0001) reduction in birth weight. This association was maintained after adjusting for other pollutants, including carbon monoxide (CO), sulfur dioxide (SO2), and PM10. No relationship was found between the concentration of PM10 and low birth weight among full-term births. Neither PM10 nor NO2 concentrations predicted the risk of premature birth.
conclusionsExposure to ambient air pollution during certain periods of pregnancy may decrease birth weight, but the effect size is small.
Identifiers
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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.