The Neonatal Environment and Health Outcomes (NEHO) Birth Cohort Study: Behavioral and Socioeconomic Characteristics and Drop-Out Rate from a Longitudinal Birth Cohort in Three Industrially Contaminated Sites in Southern Italy

Silvia Ruggieri, Sabina Maltese, Gaspare Drago, Fabio Cibella and Simona Panunzi
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Silvia Ruggieri: Institute for Biomedical Research and Innovation, National Research Council of Italy, 90146 Palermo, Italy
Sabina Maltese: Institute for Biomedical Research and Innovation, National Research Council of Italy, 90146 Palermo, Italy
Gaspare Drago: Institute for Biomedical Research and Innovation, National Research Council of Italy, 90146 Palermo, Italy
Fabio Cibella: Institute for Biomedical Research and Innovation, National Research Council of Italy, 90146 Palermo, Italy
Simona Panunzi: Institute for System Analysis and Computer Science—BioMatLab, National Research Council of Italy, 00168 Rome, Italy

IJERPH, 2021, vol. 18, issue 3, 1-24

Abstract: Pregnant women living in industrially contaminated sites (ICSs) are exposed to environmental contaminants through different pathways, and thus children’s health may be affected by pollutants. We created the Neonatal Environment and Health Outcomes (NEHO) longitudinal birth cohort in three ICSs in the Mediterranean area of southern Italy, collecting comprehensive information on personal data and lifestyles by questionnaire. Through multiple correspondence analysis, we identified possible clusters of enrolled women, and a neural network classifier analysis (NNCA) was performed to identify variables capable of predicting the attrition rate of the study. NEHO recruited 845 mother–child pairs over two years. The mothers’ mean age was 31.1 ± 5.2 SD years. We found significant differences in socioeconomic status (SES) among the three evaluated ICS, and an overall 11.1% prevalence of mothers who actively smoked during pregnancy. Active smoking during pregnancy was strongly associated with the lowest socioeconomic level ( p < 0.0001). By means of the NNCA, we found that smoking during pregnancy and the lowest education level characterized the cluster with the highest attrition rate ( p < 0.001). Our results demonstrate that reason for public health concern still exists regarding smoking during pregnancy and that SES influences both lifestyles, producing negative pregnancy outcomes and a higher survey attrition rate.

Keywords: industrially contaminated sites; birth cohort study; maternal exposure; fetal exposure; socioeconomic status; lifestyles (search for similar items in EconPapers)
JEL-codes: I I1 I3 Q Q5 (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Date: 2021
References: View references in EconPapers View complete reference list from CitEc
Citations: View citations in EconPapers (1)

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