Ambient air pollution exposure and risk of Autism Spectrum Disorder

  • 王 叔源

Student thesis: Master's Thesis

Abstract

Background:Autism Spectrum Disorders (ASD) is a group of neurodevelopmental disorders of which the mechanism is still unknown Ambient air pollution has adverse health effects but studies on the associations between air pollutants and ASD are limited Therefore we conducted a study in Taiwan to evaluate the possible associations Methods:We conducted a retrospective cohort study of all the infants born between 1996 and 2000 who were included in the Taiwan National Insurance Research Database which is a random sample of one million people We traced back the mother's residence at pregnancy and assess the exposure to air pollutants using the data obtained from the air quality monitoring database maintained by the government The effects of the exposures in five different periods were evaluated including the first trimester the second trimester the third trimester the gestation and the month of birth The air pollutants evaluated including ozone (O3) carbon monoxide (CO) nitrogen dioxide (NO2) sulfur dioxide (SO2) and particles with diameter less than 10 mm (PM10) All the participants were followed until the end of 2013 for the occurrence of ASD Cox proportional hazard models were constructed to evaluate the risks associated with the pollutants Results:We identified 62 919 newborns were in the database and 466 children developed to ASD After adjusting for other risk factors such as gender birth year and comorbidities the hazard ratio (HR) of developing ASD associated with an increase of each ppm of CO was 1 88 (95 % confidence interval [CI]: 1 49-2 36) in gestation 1 93 (95 % CI: 1 55-2 39) in the first trimester 1 77 (95 % CI: 1 41-2 22) in the second trimester and 1 75 (95 % CI: 1 39-2 21) in the third trimester The adjusted HR associated with 10 ppb of NO2 was 1 42 (95 % CI: 1 22-1 66) in the gestation 1 39 (95 % CI: 1 22-1 58) in the first trimester 1 25 (95 % CI: 1 10-1 42) in the second trimester and 1 18 (95 % CI: 1 03-1 34) in the third trimester The adjusted HR associated with 10 μg/m3 of PM10 was 0 90 (95 % CI: 0 98-0 99) in gestation 0 94 (95 % CI: 0 90-0 99) in the second trimester and 0 91 (95 % CI: 0 87-0 96) in the third trimester The adjusted HR associated with 10 ppb of O3 was 0 74 (95 % CI: 0 56-0 97) in gestation Conclusion:Our study found that prenatal exposure to CO and NO2 increased the risk of developing ASD in the early childhood while exposure to PM10 and O3 were not
Date of Award2016 Aug 23
Original languageEnglish
SupervisorHow-Ran Guo (Supervisor)

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