Background:The ashes and dust resulting from the 2011 eruptions of the Puyehue volcano in Chile more than doubled monthly averages of PM10 concentrations in Montevideo, Uruguay. Few studies have taken advantage of natural experiments to assess the relationship between ambient air pollutant concentrations and birth outcomes.Objectives:In this study we explored the effect of particulate matter with diameter of ≤ 10 μm (PM10) on perinatal outcomes in Uruguay, a middle-income country in South America with levels of PM10 that in general do not exceed the recommended thresholds. The analyzed outcomes are preterm birth, term birth weight, and term low birth weight.Methods:We took advantage of the sharp variation in PM10 concentrations due to the Puyehue eruptions to estimate the associations between mother’s exposure to PM10 in each trimester of pregnancy and perinatal outcomes. We use birth registries for 2010–2013 and control for covariates, including maternal and pregnancy characteristics, weather, co-pollutants, and calendar quarter and hospital indicators.Results:A 10-μg/m3 increase in exposure to PM10 during the third trimester was associated with a higher likelihood of a preterm birth [odds ratio (OR) = 1.10; 95% CI: 1.03, 1.19]. The association was robust to different model specifications, and increased with categorical exposure levels (OR for third-trimester PM10 ≥ 70 vs. < 30 μg/m3 = 5.24; 95% CI: 3.40, 8.08). Exposures were not consistently associated with birth weight or low birth weight among term births, though second-trimester exposures were associated with higher birth weight, contrary to expectations.Conclusions:Taking advantage of a natural experiment, we found evidence that exposure to high levels of PM10 during the third trimester of pregnancy may have increased preterm births among women in Montevideo, Uruguay.Citation:Balsa AI, Caffera M, Bloomfield J. 2016. Exposures to particulate matter from the eruptions of the Puyehue Volcano and birth outcomes in Montevideo, Uruguay. Environ Health Perspect 124:1816–1822; http://dx.doi.org/10.1289/EHP235
Parenting programs can improve experiences during the early years and generate long-term outcomes in variables such as employment, health, education, and salary. The need to scale up parenting programs has driven the implementation of interventions based on communication technologies and behavioral economics. This paper compares two impact evaluations of the Positive Parenting program in 2018 and a fully remote adaptation of the program in 2020. The evaluation of the first edition, which included an intensive face-to-face parenting workshop and emails, found significant increases in parental involvement and in the quality of child-caregiver interaction. The evaluation of the second edition of the program, which only included the sending of remote messages and was carried out in the context of the pandemic, does not find statistically significant effects, except in variables such as equal cooperation in parenting tasks within the household and socialization activities. The difference in results could be explained by the absence of an in-person workshop, the greater extension of the messages and the attention divided between multiple sources of stress and distractions observed during the second edition.
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