title: Prenatal air pollutant exposure and occurrence of atopic dermatitis.
abstract: BACKGROUND
  Hereditary and environmental factors have been related to the occurrence of atopic dermatitis (AD) in early childhood. However, the role of prenatal and early postnatal exposure to air pollutants has not been totally elucidated.
  
  
  OBJECTIVE
  To evaluate the association between prenatal air pollutant exposure and occurrence of AD.
  
  
  METHODS
  In total 24 200 infant-mother pairs were recruited to participate in the Taiwan Birth Cohort Study in 2005 using multistage stratified sampling. Medical history, including physician-diagnosed AD, was inquired by questionnaire at the infant's age of 6 months. Monthly averages of five criteria air pollutants - NO2 , CO, O3 , SO2 and PM10 - were retrieved from 66 air-quality-monitoring stations, and interpolated to all administrative districts using the kriging method. Exposure data during each of the three gestational trimesters and three months after birth were calculated for each study subject, and odds ratios (ORs) of AD occurrence were calculated by logistic regression.
  
  
  RESULTS
  Among the participants, 16 686 mother-infant pairs were qualified for and included in the analysis. Among them, 1206 infants (7·2%) had been diagnosed as having AD before the age of 6 months, and the prevalence was higher in boys (8·3%) than in girls (6·1%). The occurrence of AD was significantly associated with CO exposure during the whole gestational period [adjusted OR (aOR) 1·37, 95% confidence interval (CI) 1·06-1·78] and the first trimester (aOR 1·51, 95% CI 1·16-1·97). We did not observe any significant association among the other air pollutants during either the whole gestational period or any period of the three trimesters and 3 months after birth.
  
  
  CONCLUSIONS
  Our study found a relationship between AD occurrence and gestational exposure to CO, where exposure during the first trimester seemed to be the most important.
authors.affiliation: Institute of Occupational Medicine and Industrial Hygiene, National Taiwan University, Taipei, Taiwan.|Department of Environmental and Occupational Medicine, College of Medicine, National Taiwan University (NTU) and NTU Hospital, Taipei, Taiwan.
authors.forename: C C
authors.initials: CC
authors.lastname: Huang
authors.affiliation: National Institute of Environmental Health Sciences, National Health Research Institutes, Miaoli, Taiwan.
authors.forename: H J
authors.initials: HJ
authors.lastname: Wen
authors.affiliation: Institute of Occupational Medicine and Industrial Hygiene, National Taiwan University, Taipei, Taiwan.|Department of Environmental and Occupational Medicine, College of Medicine, National Taiwan University (NTU) and NTU Hospital, Taipei, Taiwan.
authors.forename: P C
authors.initials: PC
authors.lastname: Chen
authors.affiliation: Institute of Health Policy and Management, National Taiwan University, Taipei, Taiwan.
authors.forename: T L
authors.initials: TL
authors.lastname: Chiang
authors.affiliation: Department of Pediatrics, Chi Mei Hospital, Tainan, Taiwan.
authors.forename: S J
authors.initials: SJ
authors.lastname: Lin
authors.affiliation: Institute of Occupational Medicine and Industrial Hygiene, National Taiwan University, Taipei, Taiwan.|Department of Environmental and Occupational Medicine, College of Medicine, National Taiwan University (NTU) and NTU Hospital, Taipei, Taiwan.
authors.forename: Y L
authors.initials: YL
authors.lastname: Guo
mesh_terms: D000393:Air Pollutants / Q000009:adverse effects / Q000032:analysis; D000397:Air Pollution / Q000009:adverse effects* / Q000032:analysis; D015331:Cohort Studies; D003876:Dermatitis, Atopic / Q000453:epidemiology*; D005260:Female; D006801:Humans; D007223:Infant; D007231:Infant, Newborn; D008297:Male; D011247:Pregnancy; D011297:Prenatal Exposure Delayed Effects / Q000453:epidemiology*; D015995:Prevalence; D012111:Residence Characteristics / Q000706:statistics & numerical data; D017678:Sex Distribution; D013624:Taiwan / Q000453:epidemiology
chemical_list: D000393:Air Pollutants