 | The 131st Annual Meeting (November 15-19, 2003) of APHA |
|
| The 131st Annual Meeting (November 15-19, 2003) of APHA |
Rupa Basu, PhD, MPH, Office of Policy, Economics, and Innovation, United States Environmental Protection Agency, 1200 Pennsylvania Ave NW (1809T), Washington, DC 21460, (202)566-2362, basu.rupa@epa.gov, Jennifer D. Parker, PhD, Population Epidemiology Branch, Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, National Center for Health Statistics, 3311 Toledo Road, Hyattsville, MD 20782, Louise Saulnier, MA, Population Epidemiology Branch, Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, National Center for Health Statistics, 3311 Toledo Road, Hyattsville, MD 20782, and Tracey J. Woodruff, PhD, MPH, Office of Policy, Economics and Innovation, United States Environmental Protection Agency, 75 Hawthorne Street (SPE-1), San Francisco, CA 94105.
Several studies have examined the association between air pollution and birth outcomes. Since mothers who smoke during pregnancy may be more likely to live in areas with higher pollution levels and maternal smoking has been associated with adverse birth outcomes, maternal smoking may be a potential confounder in these studies. All states do not provide complete maternal smoking information in their birth certificates, however, which may result in residual confounding. In a cross-sectional study of 193,308 births obtained from Arizona and Florida birth certificates in 1999 and 2000, we evaluated the association between particulate matter with less than 2.5 micrometers in diameter (PM2.5) and birth weight to obtain more complete adjustment for maternal smoking. Data for infant births was geocoded by the residence of each mother, and linked with monitoring data for PM2.5 provided by the Environmental Protection Agency’s AIRS database. Of the identified births, 15,408 (8%) mothers smoked during pregnancy. The PM2.5 and birth weight association remained unchanged in linear regression models with or without maternal smoking included as a covariate (beta =-0.063 [PM2.5 and maternal smoking]; beta = -0.069 [PM2.5 only]), indicating that maternal smoking was not a confounder. Similar results were obtained for multivariate models that included maternal demographic characteristics in addition to PM2.5 and maternal smoking. However, maternal age, education, and race influenced the association between PM2.5 and birth weight. Thus, studies evaluating the relationship between air pollution and birth outcomes should consider covariates such as maternal age, education, and race rather than maternal smoking.
Learning Objectives:
Keywords: Air Pollutants, Birth Outcomes
Presenting author's disclosure statement:
I do not have any significant financial interest/arrangement or affiliation with any organization/institution whose products or services are being discussed in this session.