Time-series analysis of air pollution and birth defects during 2010 to 2015 in Xi'an / 西安交通大学学报(医学版)

ABSTRACT

Objective To study the effects of air pollution including sulphur dioxide (SO2),nitrogen dioxide (NO2) and PM10 in Xi'an on birth defects.Methods We collected the birth defects data from Xi'an Maternal and Child Health Hospital,meteorological data from Xi'an Bureau of Meteorology,and the air pollution data from Xi'an Environment Monitoring Station from 2010 to 2015.Generalized additive model (GAM) was used to explore the relationship between air pollution and birth defects after adjusting the effects of long-term and seasonal trend,temperature,and relative humidity.Results The monthly average birth defects were 89 cases;the monthly average concentration of SO2,NO2 and PM10 was 34.05 μg/m3,45.13 μg/m3,and 96.77 μg/m3,respectively.In the GAM,the monthly average temperature was 13.57 ℃ and the relative humidity was 63.20％.The three kinds of air pollutants all had a certain lag effect in 10 months,which reached the maximum.With an increase of concentration by 10 μg/m3 in three air pollutants,the relative risks and confidence interval of SO2,NO2,and PM10 were 1.060 (1.023-1.097),1.033 (1.014-1.052) and 1.018 (1.007-1.029),with significant differences (P＜0.05).Conclusion Exposure to SO2,NO2,and PM10 may be associated with the risk of birth defects.