Air Pollution Exposure during Pregnancy and Childhood Autistic Traits in Four European Population-Based Cohort Studies: The ESCAPE Project
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Background: Prenatal exposure to air pollutants has been suggested as a possible etiologic factor for the occurrence of autism spectrum disorder. Objectives: We aimed to assess whether prenatal air pollution exposure is associated with childhood autistic traits in the general population. Methods: Ours was a collaborative study of four European population-based birth/child cohorts—CATSS (Sweden), Generation R (the Netherlands), GASPII (Italy), and INMA (Spain). Nitrogen oxides (NO2, NOx) and particulate matter (PM) with diameters of ≤ 2.5 μm (PM2.5), ≤ 10 μm (PM10), and between 2.5 and 10 μm (PMcoarse), and PM2.5 absorbance were estimated for birth addresses by land-use regression models based on monitoring campaigns performed between 2008 and 2011. Levels were extrapolated back in time to exact pregnancy periods. We quantitatively assessed autistic traits when the child was between 4 and 10 years of age. Children were classified with autistic traits within the borderline/clinical range and within the clinical range using validated cut-offs. Adjusted cohort-specific effect estimates were combined using random-effects meta-analysis. Results: A total of 8,079 children were included. Prenatal air pollution exposure was not associated with autistic traits within the borderline/clinical range (odds ratio = 0.94; 95% CI: 0.81, 1.10 per each 10-μg/m3 increase in NO2 pregnancy levels). Similar results were observed in the different cohorts, for the other pollutants, and in assessments of children with autistic traits within the clinical range or children with autistic traits as a quantitative score. Conclusions: Prenatal exposure to NO2 and PM was not associated with autistic traits in children from 4 to 10 years of age in four European population-based birth/child cohort studies. Citation: Guxens M, Ghassabian A, Gong T, Garcia-Esteban R, Porta D, Giorgis-Allemand L, Almqvist C, Aranbarri A, Beelen R, Badaloni C, Cesaroni G, de Nazelle A, Estarlich M, Forastiere F, Forns J, Gehring U, Ibarluzea J, Jaddoe VW, Korek M, Lichtenstein P, Nieuwenhuijsen MJ, Rebagliato M, Slama R, Tiemeier H, Verhulst FC, Volk HE, Pershagen G, Brunekreef B, Sunyer J. 2016. Air pollution exposure during pregnancy and childhood autistic traits in four European population-based cohort studies: the ESCAPE Project. Environ Health Perspect 124:133–140; http://dx.doi.org/10.1289/ehp.1408483
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The authors had completed their review but had not yet published their results when three new relevant studies were published.
“We had completed our review but had not yet published our results when three new relevant studies were published [69].”
From A Systematic Review and Meta-Analysis of Multiple Airborne Pollutants and Autism Spectrum Disorder (2016) · cites this paper as [69]
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- Authors
- Guxens, M., Ghassabian, A., Gong, T., Garcia-Esteban, R., Porta, D., Giorgis-Allemand, L., Almqvist, C., Aranbarri, A., Beelen, R., Badaloni, C., Cesaroni, G., de Nazelle, A., Estarlich, M., Forastiere, F., Forns, J., Gehring, U., Ibarluzea, J., Jaddoe, V. W. V., Korek, M., Lichtenstein, P., Nieuwenhuijsen, M. J., Rebagliato, M., Slama, R., Tiemeier, H., Verhulst, F. C., Volk, H. E., Pershagen, G., Brunekreef, B., & Sunyer, J.
- Affiliations
- Universitat Pompeu Fabra (ES)
- Erasmus MC (NL)
- Karolinska Institutet (SE)
- Center for Research in Environmental Epidemiology (CREAL), Barcelona, Spain
- Department of Epidemiology Lazio Regional Health Service, Rome Italy
- Inserm (FR)
- University of the Basque Country (ES)
- Utrecht University (NL)
- Universitat de València (ES)
- Norwegian Institute of Public Health (NO)
- Basque Government (ES)
- Universitat Jaume I (ES)
- University of Southern California (US)
- Corresponding author
- Guxens, Mònica
- ORCID
- Guxens, Mònica
- Ghassabian, Akhgar
- Gong, Tong
- Porta, Daniela
- Giorgis-Allemand, Lise
- Almqvist, Catarina
- Aranbarri, Aritz
- Cesaroni, Giulia
- Estarlich, Marisa
- Forastiere, Francesco
- Forns, Joan
- Gehring, Ulrike
- Ibarluzea, Jesús
- Jaddoe, Vincent W.V.
- Korek, Michal
- Lichtenstein, Paul
- Nieuwenhuijsen, Mark J.
- Rebagliato, Marisa
- Slama, Rémy
- Tiemeier, Henning
- Verhulst, Frank C.
- Volk, Heather E.
- Pershagen, Göran
- Brunekreef, Bert
- Sunyer, Jordi
- Venue
- Environmental Health Perspectives
- Publisher
- American Chemical Society (ACS)
- Published
- 2015-06-12
- Volume
- 124
- Issue
- 1
- Pages
- 133-140
- ISSN
- 0091-6765 (ISSN-L)
- 1552-9924
- PMC
- PMC4710593
- OpenAlex
- W1705289040
- Cited by
- 144
- References
- 30
- Citations by year
- 2026: 12 · 2025: 14 · 2024: 10 · 2023: 6 · 2022: 12 · 2021: 17 · 2020: 7 · 2019: 17 · 2018: 14 · 2017: 12 · 2016: 16 · 2015: 7
- FWCI
- 10.22
- Type
- journal article
- Language
- en
- Open access
- gold
- doi.org
- Licence
- public-domain
- creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/ (vor, 931 d)
- Locations
- Environmental Health Perspectives (publishedVersion, public-domain)
- PubMed Central (publishedVersion, public-domain)
- PubMed (publishedVersion)
- LA Referencia (Red Federada de Repositorios Institucionales de Publicaciones Científicas) (publishedVersion, other-oa)
- EUR Research Repository (Erasmus University Rotterdam) (publishedVersion)
- RECERCAT (Consorci de Serveis Universitaris de Catalunya) (publishedVersion)
- BIBSYS Brage (BIBSYS (Norway)) (acceptedVersion)
- Research Bank (Australian Catholic University) (submittedVersion)
- EUR Research Repository (Erasmus University Rotterdam) (submittedVersion)
- Utrecht University Repository (Utrecht University) (submittedVersion, other-oa)
- NORA - Norwegian Open Research Archives (submittedVersion, other-oa)
- Figshare (submittedVersion, cc-by)
- Open Archive (Karolinska Institutet) (submittedVersion, public-domain)
- Repositori UJI (Universitat Jaume I) (submittedVersion, public-domain)
- Repositori digital de la UPF (Universitat Pompeu Fabra) (submittedVersion)
- Spiral (Imperial College London) (submittedVersion)
- Data Archiving and Networked Services (DANS) (submittedVersion)
- Funders
- Fundació la Marató de TV3 (090430)
- European Commission (211250, 212652)
- Deutsche Forschungsgemeinschaft
- ZonMw (907.00303, 916.10159)
- Erasmus Universiteit Rotterdam
- VINNOVA
- Svenska Forskningsrådet Formas (340-2013-5867, 282957)
- Generalitat de Catalunya (CIRIT 1999SGR 00241, 00241, 1999SGR 0024 1)
- Eusko Jaurlaritza (2005111093, 2009111069)
- Ministero della Salute
- Nederlandse Organisatie voor Wetenschappelijk Onderzoek (90700303, 916.10159)
- Generalitat Valenciana
- Karolinska Institutet
- Vetenskapsrådet (340–2013-5867)
- Forskningsrådet om Hälsa, Arbetsliv och Välfärd (340‐2013‐5867)
- Nederlandse Organisatie voor Toegepast Natuurwetenschappelijk Onderzoek
- Instituto de Salud Carlos III (05/1052, FIS‐PI041436, HEALTH.2010.2.4.5-1, FIS‐ PI081151, 06/1213, FIS‐FEDER 03/1615, Red INMA G03/176, PI14/, 282957, 11/02591, CP1100178, PI04/1436, FIS-PI06/0867, MS13/00054, PI060867, 09/02647, CB06/02/0041, PI140891, PI141687, PI/08/1151, G03/176, 04/1509, PI131944, 03/1615, FISPS09/ 00090, 07/0314, INMA G03/176, 04/1112, 04/1931, PS09/00090, 11/01007, 05/1079)
- Erasmus Universitair Medisch Centrum Rotterdam
- Topics
- Physical Sciences › Environmental Science › Health, Toxicology and Mutagenesis › Air Quality and Health Impacts
- Life Sciences › Neuroscience › Cognitive Neuroscience › Autism Spectrum Disorder Research
- Physical Sciences › Environmental Science › Health, Toxicology and Mutagenesis › Health, Environment, Cognitive Aging
- Keywords
- air pollution exposure, prenatal exposure, autism spectrum disorder, autistic traits, nitrogen dioxide, particulate matter, PM2.5, PM10, birth cohort studies, ESCAPE project, land use regression, child development, environmental risk factors, autism etiology
- MeSH terms
- Air Pollution, Autistic Disorder, Child, Child, Preschool, Female, Humans, Male, Nitrogen Oxides, Pregnancy, Particulate Matter
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