Ambient air pollution and obesity in school-aged children and adolescents: A multicenter study in China

Feb 1, 2021The Science of the total environment

Air pollution and obesity in school children and teens across multiple Chinese cities

AI simplified

Circadian Biology on OpenScience ↗PubMed ↗DOI ↗

Abstract

Exposure to particulate matter (PM) and nitrogen dioxide (NO) is associated with increased body weight and obesity prevalence in 44,718 Chinese children and adolescents.

Long-term exposure to PM and NO is linked to higher BMI Z-scores, waist circumference, and waist-to-height ratios.
Increased prevalence of both general and central obesity is observed with higher air pollution exposure.
Stronger associations are noted for PM, particularly PM2.5 and PM10, compared to NO.
The relationship between air pollution and obesity indicators is more consistent in two-pollutant models.
Boys show more pronounced associations with air pollution exposure than girls, except for general obesity.

AI simplified

BACKGROUND: Environmental factors such as air pollution may contribute to the development of childhood obesity. However, current epidemiological evidence is limited and inconsistent.

OBJECTIVE: We investigated the associations between long-term air pollution exposure and obesity in a large population of Chinese children and adolescents.

METHODS: A total of 44,718 children and adolescents (50.5% boys) aged 7 to 18 years were recruited from seven provinces/municipalities in China. Body mass index (BMI), waist circumference, waist-to-height ratio (WHtR) and the prevalence of general and central obesity were measured. Satellite-based spatial-temporal models were used to estimate ambient concentrations of particulate matter with aerodynamic diameter < 1.0 μm (PM), <2.5 μm (PM), <10.0 μm (PM) and nitrogen dioxide (NO). We used mixed-effects linear and logistic regression models to examine the associations between air pollution exposure and body weight measures. 1 2.5 10 2

RESULTS: Exposure to PM, PM, PMand NOwas associated with increased BMI Z-score, waist circumference and WHtR, and higher prevalence of both general and central obesity. Generally, stronger associations were observed for particles, especially PMand PM, than for NO. Also, the associations of particles were generally more stable in two-pollutant models. Overall, the associations were more pronounced in boys than in girls except for general obesity. 1 2.5 10 2 1 2.5 2

CONCLUSIONS: Long-term exposure to air pollution was associated with increased body weight and higher prevalence of obesity in children and adolescents, suggesting potential obesogenic effects of air pollution.

Full Text

Full text is available at the source.

View full text (XML) ↗View full text ↗

Ambient air pollution and obesity in school-aged children and adolescents: A multicenter study in China

Abstract

Full Text

You found one interesting study. We’ll send the next 7.

what lands in your inbox each week:

Recent issues from the circadian biology brief

Abstract

Full Text

Related papers

You found one interesting study. We’ll send the next 7.

what lands in your inbox each week:

Recent issues from the circadian biology brief