Postnatal Exposure of PM10 and Autistic Behaviours among Children: The Mothers and Children's Environmental Health (MOCEH) Study

Abstract

Background/AimEnvironmental factors may play a role in the development of neurodevelopment and some studies have shown that ambient air pollution is associated with the autistic behaviours. The study was designed to investigate the impact of outdoor air pollution on autistic behaviours among children at 4, 5 years of age in Korea by using MOCEH cohort study's data.MethodsThis study is a part of the Mothers and Children's Environmental Health (MOCEH) study, a Korean multi-center prospective birth cohort study initiated in 2006. After delivery, children were followed up at 48 and 60 months of age. Average exposure level of particulate matter (PM10) were estimated using the inverse distance weighting (IDW) method from prenatal period to postnatal period. A total of 322 mother-child pairs were included. Autistic behaviours were assessed using the Social Responsiveness Scale (SRS) at 4, 5 years of age. We also examined the result stratified by sex of the children.ResultsThe average levels of PM10 during pregnancy and 3 years of age were 54.07μg/m3 and 50.08μg/m3 each. In a multiple linear regression model, although we couldn’t find significant positive relationship between exposure of PM10 in children, we found that PM10 at 3 years of age was associated with increased scores of SRS T-scores at 5 years of age in boys. (β=0.36, 95% confidence interval [CI]: 0.05,0.66) However, there was no significant positive association in girls.ConclusionsIn conclusions, postnatal exposure of PM10 is associated with the autistic behaviours, in boys at 4, 5 years of age. Further study on the other air pollutants effects to autistic behaviours in children is recommended.