The Association between Ambient PM 2.5 and Low Birth Weight in California

Jasmine Lee, Sadie Costello, John R. Balmes and Stephanie M. Holm ()
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Jasmine Lee: Division of Epidemiology, School of Public Health, University of California, Berkeley, CA 94704, USA
Sadie Costello: Division of Environmental Health Sciences, School of Public Health, University of California, Berkeley, CA 94704, USA
John R. Balmes: Division of Environmental Health Sciences, School of Public Health, University of California, Berkeley, CA 94704, USA
Stephanie M. Holm: Division of Occupational and Environmental Medicine, Department of Medicine, University of California, San Francisco, CA 94143, USA

IJERPH, 2022, vol. 19, issue 20, 1-10

Abstract: Previous studies have shown associations between air pollutants and low birth weight. However, few studies assess whether poverty and race/ethnicity are effect modifiers for this relationship. We used publicly available data on 7785 California census tracts from the California Communities Environmental Health Screening Tool (CalEnviroScreen). Multivariable linear regression was used to examine the association between outdoor PM 2.5 and low birth weight (LBW), including stratification by poverty and race/ethnicity (as a proxy for experienced racism). A 1 µg m − 3 increase in PM 2.5 was associated with a 0.03% (95% CI: 0.01, 0.04) increase in the percentage of LBW infants in a census tract. The association between PM 2.5 and LBW was stronger in census tracts with the majority living in poverty (0.06% increase; 95% CI: 0.03, 0.08) compared to those with fewer people living in poverty (0.02% increase; 95% CI: 0.00, 0.03). Our results show that exposure to outdoor PM 2.5 is associated with a small increase in the percentage of LBW infants in a census tract, with a further increase in tracts with high poverty. The results for effect modification by race/ethnicity were less conclusive.

Keywords: air pollution; low birth weight; epidemiology; ecologic study (search for similar items in EconPapers)
JEL-codes: I I1 I3 Q Q5 (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Date: 2022
References: View complete reference list from CitEc
Citations: View citations in EconPapers (1)

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