Abstract
Abstract BACKGROUND Disorders related to short gestation and low birth weight are the 2nd cause of infant death in Canada and have been increasing, especially in Alberta. Individual maternal risks are important but environmental exposures during pregnancy may restrict fetal growth. This contributes to small for gestational age (SGA: < tenth percentile weight for pregnancy duration) and low birth weight at term (LBWT: <2500 grams at ≥37 weeks-gestation). OBJECTIVES We examined the spatial-temporal patterns of SGA and LBWT with patterns of pollutants around conception, middle trimester, and birth. DESIGN/METHODS We aggregated postal code locations of mothers’ residences from the 2006–2012 birth registry in to space-time bins to analyze emerging hot spots. We applied the space-time pattern analysis on 70 industrial chemical emissions from the National Pollutant Release Inventory (NPRI) in estimated three month intervals. Then we statistically associated the classified patterns of SGA/LBWT with the pollutant patterns using the kappa statistic to determine how much the hot spot categories agree. The difference between kappa values indicated which trimester would be more important for which chemical. RESULTS There was an increasing trend for SGA (consecutive hot spots) and for LBWT (sporadic hot spots) in major urban centers. There was an increasing trend for 15 chemicals (varying hot spots). 28 chemical patterns had a kappa index greater than 0.2 with SGA or LBWT patterns. Although there is poor agreement between the space-time patterns, the maximum kappa values occurred mostly with LBWT and around birth. CONCLUSION Spatial-temporal patterns of chemicals identified in published literature (e.g. particulate matter and gases) agreed more with timing around conception; however, there were additional pollutants identified during the birth trimester. Our research is moving us toward a better understanding of the spatial-temporal link between environment and early health.
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