Abstract
Growing evidence has related exposure to air pollution to decelerated cognitive development in children. However, the relevant widow of exposure for such an association is yet to be established. The objective of this work was to evaluate the associations between exposures to particulate matter ≤ 2.5 µm (PM2.5) at different prenatal and postnatal periods and cognitive function in children to identify important windows of exposure.This study was based on 2,221 children (8.5 ± 0.9 years old) recruited from 39 schools across Barcelona, Spain (2012). We applied land use regression models to estimate residential PM2.5 exposure during the prenatal period and the first seven years of life for each participant. Computerized n-back tests to assess working memory (WM) and attentional network tasks (ANT) to assess attentiveness (consistency in response time) and executive function were repeated four times within a year. We used linear mixed effects models with participant and schools as random effects to explore the associations between cognitive development and annual PM2.5 averages of pre-natal and post-natal exposure, adjusted for relevant covariates.Detrimental periods for WM were identified for the fifth and sixth year of life. An interquartile range (IQR) increase of PM2.5 at year 6 resulted in a reduction of -4.62 (95%CI: -8.19, -1.04) points in WM. Important differences were observed by sex, with boys having significant negative effects on WM for all the periods except year 2, while no vulnerable period was observed for girls. Periods of significant detrimental effects on the executive function were identified at the prenatal stage and from postnatal year 4 until 7. No significant differences were observed between boys and girls in the attention domains (attentiveness and executive function).Early life exposure to PM2.5 was detrimentally associated with fundamental cognitive abilities including working memory and executive function.
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