Background:The urban exposome is the set of environmental factors that are experienced in the outdoor urban environment and that may influence child development.Objective:The authors’ goal was to describe the urban exposome among European pregnant women and understand its socioeconomic determinants.Methods:Using geographic information systems, remote sensing and spatio-temporal modeling we estimated exposure during pregnancy to 28 environmental indicators in almost 30,000 women from six population-based birth cohorts, in nine urban areas from across Europe. Exposures included meteorological factors, air pollutants, traffic noise, traffic indicators, natural space, the built environment, public transport, facilities, and walkability. Socioeconomic position (SEP), assessed at both the area and individual level, was related to the exposome through an exposome-wide association study and principal component (PC) analysis.Results:Mean±standard deviation (SD) NO2 levels ranged from 13.6±5.1 μg/m3 (in Heraklion, Crete) to 43.2±11 μg/m3 (in Sabadell, Spain), mean±SD walkability score ranged from 0.22±0.04 (Kaunas, Lithuania) to 0.32±0.07 (Valencia, Spain) and mean±SD Normalized Difference Vegetation Index ranged from 0.21±0.05 in Heraklion to 0.51±0.1 in Oslo, Norway. Four PCs explained more than half of variation in the urban exposome. There was considerable heterogeneity in social patterning of the urban exposome across cities. For example, high-SEP (based on family education) women lived in greener, less noisy, and less polluted areas in Bradford, UK (0.39 higher PC1 score, 95% confidence interval (CI): 0.31, 0.47), but the reverse was observed in Oslo (−0.57 PC1 score, 95% CI: −0.73, −0.41). For most cities, effects were stronger when SEP was assessed at the area level: In Bradford, women living in high SEP areas had a 1.34 higher average PC1 score (95% CI: 1.21, 1.48).Conclusions:The urban exposome showed considerable variability across Europe. Pregnant women of low SEP were exposed to higher levels of environmental hazards in some cities, but not others, which may contribute to inequities in child health and development. https://doi.org/10.1289/EHP2862

No abstract

Background:Being overweight constitutes a health risk, and the proportion of overweight and obese children is increasing. It has been argued that road traffic noise could be linked to adiposity through its influence on sleep and stress. Few studies, to our knowledge, have investigated whether noise and adiposity are associated. Most of them were on adults, and we are not aware of any longitudinal study using repeated measures.Objectives:The present longitudinal study investigated whether road traffic noise exposures in pregnancy (N = 6,963; obs = 22,975) or childhood (N = 6,403; obs = 14,585) were associated with body mass index (BMI) trajectories in children.Methods:We obtained information on BMI and covariates from questionnaires used in the Norwegian Mother and Child Cohort Study, Statistics Norway, and Medical Birth Registry of Norway. We modeled road traffic noise for the most exposed façade of children’s present and historical addresses at 6 time points from pregnancy to age 8. We investigated effects on BMI trajectories using repeated measures and linear mixed models.Results:The results indicated that BMI curves depended on road traffic noise exposure during pregnancy, but not on exposure during childhood. Children in the highest decile of traffic noise exposure had increased BMI, with 0.35 kg/m2 more than children in the lowest decile, from birth to age 8 years.Conclusions:The results indicate that exposure to road traffic noise during pregnancy may be associated with children’s BMI trajectories. Future studies should investigate this further, using anthropometric measures such as waist-hip ratio and skinfold thickness, in addition to BMI.

No abstract