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Effects of ambient air pollution on the risk of small- and large-for-gestational-age births: an analysis using national birth data in Japan

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Abstract

Objectives

Small-for-gestational-age (SGA) and large-for-gestational-age (LGA) births are major adverse birth outcomes related to newborn health. In contrast, the association between ambient air pollution levels and SGA or LGA births has not been investigated in Japan; hence, the purpose of our study is to investigate this association.

Methods

We used birth data from Vital Statistics in Japan from 2017 to 2021 and municipality-level data on air pollutants, including nitrogen dioxide (NO2), sulfur dioxide (SO2), photochemical oxidants, and particulate matter 2.5 (PM2.5). Ambient air pollution levels throughout the first, second, and third trimesters, as well as the whole pregnancy, were calculated for each birth. The association between SGA/LGA and ambient levels of the air pollutants was investigated using crude and adjusted log-binomial regression models. In addition, a regression model with spline functions was also used to detect the non-linear association.

Results

We analyzed data from 2,434,217 births. Adjusted regression analyses revealed statistically significant and positive associations between SGA birth and SO2 level, regardless of the exposure period. Specifically, the risk ratio for average SO2 values throughout the whole pregnancy was 1.014 (95% confidence interval [CI] 1.009, 1.019) per 1 ppb increase. In addition, regression analysis with spline functions indicated that an increase in risk ratio for SGA birth depending on SO2 level was linear. Furthermore, statistically significant and negative associations were observed between LGA birth and SO2 except for the third trimester.

Conclusions

It was suggested that ambient level of SO2 during the pregnancy term is a risk factor for SGA birth in Japan.

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Data availability

The data that support the results are available from the Ministry of Health, Labour, and Welfare in Japan. However, restrictions apply to the availability of these data, which were used under license for the current study, and are not publicly available. Data are available from an author upon reasonable request and with permission of the Ministry of Health, Labour, and Welfare in Japan.

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Acknowledgements

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Funding

This study was supported by JSPS KAKENHI Grant Number JP22K17372.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Medical Information Center, Kyushu University Hospital, Maidashi 3-1-1 Higashi-ku, Fukuoka City , Fukuoka prefecture, 812-8582, Japan

    Tasuku Okui & Naoki Nakashima

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  1. Tasuku Okui
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  2. Naoki Nakashima
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Contributions

Conceptualization: TO. Data curation: TO. Formal analysis: TO. Methodology: TO. Funding acquisition: TO. Writing—original draft: TO. Writing—review & editing: TO, NN.

Corresponding author

Correspondence to Tasuku Okui.

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Ethics approval and consent to participate

This study was approved by the Kyushu University Institutional Review Board for Clinical Research (No. 22221-04). In addition, informed consent was not required because we used the data that were provided from the government on the basis of the Statistics Act in Japan, and it was waived by the ethics committee of Kyushu University.

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Okui, T., Nakashima, N. Effects of ambient air pollution on the risk of small- and large-for-gestational-age births: an analysis using national birth data in Japan. Int Arch Occup Environ Health (2024). https://doi.org/10.1007/s00420-024-02063-1

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