Prenatal household air pollutant exposure is associated with reduced size and gestational age at birth among a cohort of Ghanaian infants

Prenatal and Postnatal Household Air Pollution Exposure and Infant Growth Trajectories: Evidence from a Rural Ghanaian Pregnancy Cohort

“…Studies using questionnaires to characterize HAP exposure suggest an effect of early life HAP on child growth; however, exposure–response relationships have been limited to birth weight ( Balakrishnan et al. 2018 ; Mishra and Retherford 2007 ; Quinn et al. 2021 ).…”

“…Secondary exposure–response analyses found that higher prenatal carbon monoxide (CO) exposure was associated with a lower birth weight ( , 95% CI: , increase) and length ( , 95% CI: , increase) and increased pneumonia risk in the first year of life; these results have been reported separately ( Kinney et al. 2021 ; Quinn et al. 2021 ).…”

Household use of crop residues and fuelwood for cooking and newborn birth size in rural Bangladesh

“…9 10 Studies have linked cooking solid fuel use with adverse birth outcomes such as low birth weight (LBW), birth size, preterm birth, stillbirth, small for gestational age (SGA), Apgar score and neonatal mortality. [11][12][13][14][15][16][17][18][19][20][21][22][23] Most of previous studies have focused mainly on the association between the use of solid fuels and birth outcomes by comparing pollution fuels (wood, crop residue, animal dung, charcoal or kerosene) versus cleaner fuels (liquid petroleum gas, natural gas and/or electricity). 12 14-17 19-23 However, to our knowledge, no studies have accessed the type of cooking biomass fuels (crop residues vs fuelwood, also called 'firewood') in association with newborn birth outcomes such as birth size and LBW, even though the pollution exposure from biomass was different by type of cooking biomass fuels.…”

Setting a Growth Trajectory: Household Air Pollution Exposures Before and After Birth

“…HAP has been associated with decreased birth weight. 4 , 5 However, until now, no studies have reported an exposure–response relationship between exposure to HAP and early childhood growth trajectories.…”

“…This study enrolled more than 1,400 pregnant women from 35 Ghanaian communities to assess how cooking with two different types of household cookstoves compared with cooking over an open fire in relation to birth outcomes and infant pneumonia risk. 4 , 6 , 7 , 8 In addition, the authors prospectively collected anthropometric measures every 3 months to assess whether exposure to HAP was associated with infant growth trajectories. Intervention households received either a liquified petroleum gas (LPG) stove or an improved biomass stove, whereas just over one-third of the households continued using open fires to cook.…”