Background: Air pollution exposure during pregnancy might affect placental growth and function, perhaps leading to pregnancy complications. Objective: We prospectively evaluated the associations of ...maternal air pollution exposure with markers of placental growth and function among 7,801 pregnant women in the Netherlands. Methods: We estimated levels of particulate matter ≤ 10 μm in aerodynamic diameter (PM10) and nitrogen dioxide (NO2) at the home address for different periods during pregnancy using dispersion modeling techniques. Pro- and anti-angiogenic factors placental growth factor (PlGF) and soluble fms-like tyrosine kinase 1 (sFlt-1), respectively were measured in first- and second-trimester maternal blood and in fetal cord blood samples at delivery. Pulsatility index of the uterine and umbilical arteries was measured by Doppler ultrasound in second and third trimester, and notching was assessed in third trimester. Placenta weight and birth weight were obtained from medical records. Results: Higher PM10 and NO2 exposure levels were associated with lower second-trimester maternal sFlt-1 and PlGF levels. PM10 and NO2 exposures averaged over total pregnancy were associated with higher sFlt-1 and lower PlGF levels in fetal cord blood, consistent with an anti-angiogenic state. PM10 and NO2 exposures were not consistently associated with second- or third-trimester placental resistance indices. NO2 exposure was associated with third-trimester notching (odds ratio 1.33; 95% CI: 0.99, 1.78 per 10-μg/m3 increase in the prior 2 months). PM10 and NO2 exposures were associated with lower placenta weight (—11.8 g; 95% CI: —20.9, —2.7, and —10.7 g; 95% CI: —19.0, —2.4, respectively, per 10-μg/3 increase in the prior 2 months), but not with placenta to birth weight ratio. Conclusions: Our results suggest that maternal air pollution exposure may influence markers of placental growth and function. Future studies are needed to confirm these findings and explore the maternal and fetal consequences.
Celotno besedilo
Dostopno za:
BFBNIB, DOBA, IZUM, KILJ, NMLJ, NUK, PILJ, PNG, SAZU, SIK, UILJ, UKNU, UL, UM, UPUK
Background: Exposure to air pollution has been associated with higher C-reactive protein (CRP) levels, suggesting an inflammatory response. Not much is known about this association in pregnancy. ...Objectives: We investigated the associations of air pollution exposure during pregnancy with maternal and fetal CRP levels in a population-based cohort study in the Netherlands. Methods: Particulate matter (PM) with an aerodynamic diameter ≤ 10 μm (PM₁₀) and nitrogen dioxide (NO₂) levels were estimated at the home address using dispersion modeling for different averaging periods preceding the blood sampling (1 week, 2 weeks, 4 weeks, and total pregnancy). High-sensitivity CRP levels were measured in maternal blood samples in early pregnancy (n = 5,067) and in fetal cord blood samples at birth (n = 4,450). Results: Compared with the lowest quartile, higher PM₁₀ exposure levels for the prior 1 and 2 weeks were associated with elevated maternal CRP levels (> 8 μg/L) in the first trimester fourth PM, 0 quartile for the prior week: odds ratio (OR), 1.32; 95% confidence interval (CI): 1.08, 1.61; third PM₁₀ quartile for the prior 2 weeks: OR, 1.28; 95% CI: 1.06, 1.56; however, no clear doseresponse relationships were observed. PM₁₀ and NO₂ exposure levels for 1, 2, and 4 weeks preceding delivery were not consistently associated with fetal CRP levels at delivery. Higher long-term PM₁₀ and NO₂ exposure levels (total pregnancy) were associated with elevated fetal CRP levels (> 1 μg/L) at delivery (fourth quartile PM₁₀: OR, 2.18; 95% CI: 1.08, 4.38; fourth quartile NO 2 : OR, 3.42; 95% CI: 1.36, 8.58;p-values for trend < 0.05). Conclusions: Our results suggest that exposure to air pollution during pregnancy may lead to maternal and fetal inflammatory responses.
Background: Air pollution exposure during pregnancy might have trimester-specific effects on fetal growth. Objective: We prospectively evaluated the associations of maternal air pollution exposure ...with fetal growth characteristics and adverse birth outcomes in 7,772 subjects in the Netherlands. Methods: Paniculate matter with an aerodynamic diameter < 10 µm (PM₁₀₂) and nitrogen dioxide (NO₂) levels were estimated using dispersion modeling at the home address. Fetal head circumference, length, and weight were estimated in each trimester by ultrasound. Information on birth outcomes was obtained from medical records. Results: In cross-sectional analyses, NO₂ levels were inversely associated with fetal femur length in the second and third trimester, and PM₁₀ and NO₂ levels both were associated with smaller fetal head circumference in the third trimester -0.18 mm, 95% confidence interval (CI): -0.24, -0.12 mm; and -0.12 mm, 95% CI: -0.17, -0.06 mm per 1-µg/m³ increase in PM₁₀ and NO₂, respectively. Average PM₁₀ and NO₂ levels during pregnancy were not associated with head circumference and length at birth or neonatally, but were inversely associated with birth weight (-3.6 g, 95% CI: -6.7, -0.4 g; and -3.4 g, 95% CI: -6.2, -0.6 g, respectively). Longitudinal analyses showed similar patterns for head circumference and weight, but no associations with length. The third and fourth quartiles of PM 10 exposure were associated with preterm birth odds ratio (OR) = 1.40, 95% CI: 1.03, 1.89; and OR = 1.32; 95% CI: 0.96, 1.79, relative to the first quartile. The third quartile of PM₁₀ exposure, but not the fourth, was associated with small size for gestational age at birth (SGA) (OR = 1.38; 95% CI: 1.00, 1.90). No consistent associations were observed for NO₂ levels and adverse birth outcomes. Conclusions: Results suggest that maternal air pollution exposure is inversely associated with fetal growth during the second and third trimester and with weight at birth. PM₁₀ exposure was positively associated with preterm birth and SGA.
To investigate and explain sex differences in subjective and actigraphic sleep parameters in community-dwelling elderly persons.
Cross-sectional study.
The study was embedded in the Rotterdam Study, ...a population-based study.
Nine hundred fifty-six participants aged 59 to 97 years.
N/A.
Participants wore an actigraph and kept a sleep diary for an average of 6 consecutive nights. Subjective sleep quality was assessed with the Pittsburgh Sleep Quality Index. Unadjusted sex differences in sleep parameters were assessed with t tests. Women reported shorter total sleep time, a less favorable sleep-onset latency, lower sleep efficiency, and worse global sleep quality, as compared with men. When assessed with actigraphy, however, women were found to have longer and less-fragmented sleep than men. Sex differences in diary-reported sleep duration and other subjective sleep parameters were attenuated by adjustment for marital status, the use of sleep medication, and other covariates, but all sex differences remained significant in a multivariate-adjusted model. Sex differences in actigraphic sleep parameters were barely attenuated by multivariate adjustment, although the shorter actigraphically measured sleep duration in men was partly explained by their higher alcohol consumption. Some covariates (eg, sleep medication) had a different relationship with diary-reported or actigraphic total sleep time in men and women.
If assessed by diary or interview, elderly women consistently reported shorter and poorer sleep than elderly men. In contrast, actigraphic sleep measures showed poorer sleep in men. These discrepancies are partly explained by determinants of sleep duration, such as sleep medication use and alcohol consumption.
Recently, it has been suggested that the annoyance of residents at a given aircraft noise exposure level increases over the years. The objective of the present study was to verify the hypothesized ...trend and to identify its possible causes. To this end, the large database used to establish earlier exposure-response relationships on aircraft noise was updated with original data from several recent surveys, yielding a database with data from 34 separate airports. Multilevel grouped regression was used to determine the annoyance response per airport, after which meta-regression was used to investigate whether study characteristics could explain the heterogeneity in annoyance response between airports. A significant increase over the years was observed in annoyance at a given level of aircraft noise exposure. Furthermore, the type of annoyance scale, the type of contact, and the response percentage were found to be sources of heterogeneity. Of these, only the scale factor could statistically account for the trend, although other findings rule it out as a satisfactory explanation. No evidence was found for increased self-reported noise sensitivity. The results are of importance to the applicability of current exposure-annoyance relationships for aircraft noise and provide a basis for decisions on whether these need to be updated.
Summary
Sleep duration is an important concept in epidemiological studies. It characterizes a night’s sleep or a person’s sleep pattern, and is associated with numerous health outcomes. In most large ...studies, sleep duration is assessed with questionnaires or sleep diaries. As an alternative, actigraphy may be used, as it objectively measures sleep parameters and is feasible in large studies. However, actigraphy and sleep diaries may not measure exactly the same phenomenon. Our study aims to determine disagreement between actigraphic and diary estimates of sleep duration, and to investigate possible determinants of this disagreement. This investigation was embedded in the population‐based Rotterdam Study. The study population consisted of 969 community‐dwelling participants aged 57–97 years. Participants wore an actigraph and kept a sleep diary for, on average, six consecutive nights. Both measures were used to determine total sleep time (TST). In 34% of the participants, the estimated TST in the sleep diaries deviated more than 1 h from actigraphically measured TST. The level of disagreement between diary and actigraphic measures decreased with subjective and actigraphic measures of sleep quality, and increased with male gender, poor cognitive function and functional disability. Actigraphically measured poor sleep was often accompanied by longer subjective estimates of TST, whereas subjectively poor sleepers tended to report shorter TST in their diaries than was measured with actigraphy. We recommend, whenever possible, to use multiple measures of sleep duration, to perform analyses with both, and to examine the consistency of the results over assessment methods.
We present a model of the distribution of noise annoyance with the mean varying as a function of the noise exposure. Day-night level (DNL) and day-evening-night level (DENL) were used as noise ...descriptors. Because the entire annoyance distribution has been modeled, any annoyance measure that summarizes this distribution can be calculated from the model. We fitted the model to data from noise annoyance studies for aircraft, road traffic, and railways separately. Polynomial approximations of relationships implied by the model for the combinations of the following exposure and annoyance measures are presented: DNL or DENL, and percentage "highly annoyed" (cutoff at 72 on a scale of 0-100), percentage "annoyed" (cutoff at 50 on a scale of 0-100), or percentage (at least) "a little annoyed" (cutoff at 28 on a scale of 0-100). These approximations are very good, and they are easier to use for practical calculations than the model itself, because the model involves a normal distribution. Our results are based on the same data set that was used earlier to establish relationships between DNL and percentage highly annoyed. In this paper we provide better estimates of the confidence intervals due to the improved model of the relationship between annoyance and noise exposure. Moreover, relationships using descriptors other than DNL and percentage highly annoyed, which are presented here, have not been established earlier on the basis of a large dataset.
Celotno besedilo
Dostopno za:
BFBNIB, DOBA, IZUM, KILJ, NMLJ, NUK, PILJ, PNG, SAZU, SIK, UILJ, UKNU, UL, UM, UPUK
This study establishes functions that specify self-reported sleep disturbance in relation to the exposure to nighttime transportation noise, by reanalyzing pooled data from previous studies. Results ...are based on data from 28 original datasets obtained from 24 field studies (4 studies collected data regarding 2 sources) including almost 23,000 participants exposed to nighttime levels ranging from 45 to 65 dB. Functions are presented that give the percentage highly sleep disturbed, sleep disturbed, and (at least) a little sleep disturbed people due to aircraft, road traffic, and railway noise in relation to the average nighttime outdoor exposure level at the facade most exposed to the source concerned. These functions show that at the same average nighttime noise-exposure level, aircraft noise is associated with more self-reported sleep disturbance than road traffic, and road traffic noise is associated with more sleep disturbance than railways. The association of noise-induced sleep disturbance with age has an inverse U-shape, with the strongest reaction found between 50 and 56 years of age.
Celotno besedilo
Dostopno za:
DOBA, IJS, IZUM, KILJ, NUK, PILJ, PNG, SAZU, UILJ, UKNU, UL, UM, UPUK
9.
Annoyance from environmental noise across the lifespan Van Gerven, Pascal W M; Vos, Henk; Van Boxtel, Martin P J ...
The Journal of the Acoustical Society of America,
07/2009, Letnik:
126, Številka:
1
Journal Article
Recenzirano
Curvilinear effects of age on self-reported annoyance from environmental noise were investigated in a pooled international and a Dutch sample of in total 62,983 individuals aged between 15 and 102 ...years. All respondents were frequently exposed to varying levels of transportation noise (i.e., aircraft, road traffic, and railway noise). Results reveal an inverted U-shaped pattern, where the largest number of highly annoyed individuals was found in the middle-aged segment of the sample (peaking around 45 years) while the lowest number was found in the youngest and oldest age segments. This pattern was independent of noise exposure level and self-reported noise sensitivity. The inverted U-shape explains the absence of linear age effects in previous studies. The results are discussed in light of theories predicting an age-related vulnerability to noise.
Exposure to air pollution is associated with elevated blood pressure and cardiovascular disease. We assessed the associations of exposure to particulate matter (PM10) and nitrogen dioxide (NO2) ...levels with blood pressure measured in each trimester of pregnancy and the risks of pregnancy-induced hypertension and preeclampsia in 7006 women participating in a prospective cohort study in the Netherlands. Information on gestational hypertensive disorders was obtained from medical records. PM10 exposure was not associated with first trimester systolic and diastolic blood pressure, but a 10-μg/m increase in PM10 levels was associated with a 1.11-mm Hg (95% confidence interval CI 0.43 to 1.79) and 2.11-mm Hg (95% CI 1.34 to 2.89) increase in systolic blood pressure in the second and third trimester, respectively. Longitudinal analyses showed that elevated PM10 exposure levels were associated with a steeper increase in systolic blood pressure throughout pregnancy (P<0.01), but not with diastolic blood pressure patterns. Elevated NO2 exposure was associated with higher systolic blood pressure levels in the first, second, and third trimester (P<0.05), and with a more gradual increase when analyzed longitudinally (P<0.01). PM10 exposure, but not NO2 exposure, was associated with an increased risk of pregnancy-induced hypertension (odds ratio 1.72 95% CI 1.12 to 2.63 per 10-μg/m increase). In conclusion, our results suggest that air pollution may affect maternal cardiovascular health during pregnancy. The effects might be small but relevant on a population level.
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