Observational studyEnvironmental health perspectives2019
Ambient Temperature and Markers of Fetal Growth: A Retrospective Observational Study of 29 Million U.S. Singleton Births.
Observational study in Environmental health perspectives, 2019. The graph could read no effect estimate from its abstract, so it casts no vote on the map. Cited by 28 papers, 3 of them syntheses that pooled it.
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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.
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Who cites it
28 citing papers in PubMed, 3 syntheses or guidelines pooled it, 75 citations in OpenAlex.
- Climate Change-Related Environmental Exposures and Perinatal and Maternal Health Outcomes in the U.S.International journal of environmental research and public health · 2023Pooled it
- A Review on the Vagus Nerve and Autonomic Nervous System During Fetal Development: Searching for Critical Windows.Frontiers in neuroscience · 2021Pooled it
- Associations between high temperatures in pregnancy and risk of preterm birth, low birth weight, and stillbirths: systematic review and meta-analysis.BMJ (Clinical research ed.) · 2020Pooled it
- Exposure to extreme temperatures may increase the risk of preterm birth: findings from a contemporary US cohort.International journal of epidemiology · 2026Article
- Prenatal humid heat exposure and cord blood extracellular vesicle microRNA profiles in a Ghanaian Pregnancy Cohort: GRAPHS.Environmental epigenetics · 2026Article
- From the Atacama to Patagonia: Understanding the Effects of Extreme Temperatures on Birth Weight Across Climate Regions in Chile.GeoHealth · 2025Article
- Ambient temperature in relation to ovarian reserve and early outcomes following ovarian stimulation and in vitro fertilization.Environmental research · 2025Article
- Prenatal exposure to heat and humidity and infant birth size in Ghana.Environmental research · 2025Article
- The relationship between prenatal heat exposure and birth outcomes: How much does the heat metric matter?PloS one · 2025Article
- Development, validation and reliability of scales and items for heat wave risk assessment of pregnant women.International journal of biometeorology · 2024Article
- Interpregnancy interval, air pollution, and the risk of low birth weight: a retrospective study in China.BMC public health · 2024Article
- Short term exposure to low level ambient fine particulate matter and natural cause, cardiovascular, and respiratory morbidity among US adults with health insurance: case time series study.BMJ (Clinical research ed.) · 2024Article
- Critical Windows of Maternal Exposure to Biothermal Stress and Birth Weight for Gestational Age in Western Australia.Environmental health perspectives · 2023Article
- Relationship between birth weight and ambient temperature during pregnancy in a cross-sectional study of the residents of Suzhou, China.Frontiers in public health · 2023Article
- Adverse effects of temperature on perinatal and pregnancy outcomes: methodological challenges and knowledge gaps.Frontiers in public health · 2023Review
- Using non-parametric Bayes shrinkage to assess relationships between multiple environmental and social stressors and neonatal size and body composition in the Healthy Start cohort.Environmental health : a global access science source · 2022Article
- Effect of Elevated Ambient Temperature on Maternal, Foetal, and Neonatal Outcomes: A Scoping Review.International journal of environmental research and public health · 2022Article
- Universal Thermal Climate Index (UTCI) and adverse pregnancy outcomes in Ahvaz, Iran.Reproductive health · 2022Article
- Low and High Ambient Temperatures during Pregnancy and Birth Weight among 624,940 Singleton Term Births in Israel (2010-2014): An Investigation of Potential Windows of Susceptibility.Environmental health perspectives · 2021Article
- Impact of ambient temperature exposure on newborns with low Apgar scores in northwest China.Environmental science and pollution research international · 2021Article
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6 authors at 2 institutions in 1 country.
Funding
Abstract
backgroundEmerging studies suggest that ambient temperature during pregnancy may be associated with fetal growth, but the existing evidence is limited and inconsistent.
objectivesWe aimed to evaluate the association of trimester-specific temperature with risk of being born small for gestational age (SGA) and birth weight-markers of fetal growth-among term births in the contiguous United States.
methodsWe included data on 29,597,735 live singleton births between 1989 and 2002 across 403 U.S. counties. We estimated daily county-level population-weighted mean temperature using a spatially refined gridded climate data set. We used logistic regression to estimate the association between trimester-specific temperature and risk of SGA and linear regression to evaluate the association between trimester-specific temperature and term birth weight z-score, adjusting for parity, maternal demographics, smoking or drinking during pregnancy, chronic hypertension, and year and month of conception. We then pooled results overall and by geographic regions and climate zones.
resultsHigh ambient temperatures ([Formula: see text] percentile) during the entire pregnancy were associated with higher risk of term SGA {odds ratio [OR] [Formula: see text] 1.041 [95% confidence interval (CI): 1.029, 1.054]} and lower term birth weight [standardized to [Formula: see text] (95% CI: [Formula: see text], [Formula: see text]) reduction in birth weight for infants born at 40 weeks of gestation]. Low temperatures ([Formula: see text] percentile) during the entire pregnancy were not associated with SGA [OR [Formula: see text] 1.003 (95% CI: 0.991, 1.015)] but were associated with a small decrement in term birth weight [standardized to [Formula: see text] (95% CI: [Formula: see text], [Formula: see text])]. Risks of term SGA and birth weight were more strongly associated with temperature averaged across the second and third trimesters, in areas the Northeast, and in areas with cold or very cold climates.
conclusionsAbove-average temperatures during pregnancy were associated with lower fetal growth. Our findings provide evidence that temperature may be a novel risk factor for reduced fetal growth. https://doi.org/10.1289/EHP4648.
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