The impact of particulate matter 2.5 on the risk of preeclampsia: an updated systematic review and meta-analysis

Abstract

There is increasing and inconsistent evidence of a linkage between maternal exposure to particulate matter 2.5 (PM2.5) and preeclampsia. Therefore, this study was conducted to investigate this relationship. Electronic databases including PubMed, Embase, Web of Science, and Cochrane Library were searched to identify articles published from inception to March 23, 2020, which showed a correlation between PM2.5 and preeclampsia. Finally, 9 of 523 initial studies were deemed eligible for inclusion. A random effect model was adopted to calculate the standardized odds ratio (OR) and 95% confidence interval (CI). Based on potential effect modification, subgroup analyses were further performed. Meta-analysis showed that maternal exposure to PM2.5 (per 10 μg/m3 increment) elevated the risk of preeclampsia (OR = 1.32, 95% CI 1.10 to 1.58%). Compared with other pregnancy trimesters, the third trimester of pregnancy seems to be the period in which women are more susceptible to PM2.5. Significant effect modification of the correlation between PM2.5 exposure and preeclampsia according to multiple pregnancies, pregnancy stage, maternal-related disease history, and sample size was not observed. The results demonstrated that maternal exposure to PM2.5 may predispose pregnant women to develop preeclampsia, especially in the third trimester of pregnancy. Therefore, more efforts should be made to improve air quality to maintain the health of pregnant women.

Exposure to PM2.5 during Pregnancy and Fetal Growth in Eastern Massachusetts, USA

“…Thus, exposure to can not only contribute to a pregnancy becoming a high-risk pregnancy—given that past work has shown that it is associated with pregnancy conditions, such as gestational diabetes and preeclampsia ( Tang et al. 2020 ; Yu et al. 2020 )—but also, based our findings, may predispose such high-risk individuals to its adverse health effects.…”

Ambient air pollution and inflammatory effects in a Canadian pregnancy cohort

“…This matches the time-window of exposure investigated in our study. 71 Our analysis has several strengths. The MIREC Study is a prospective, multisite pregnancy cohort study, and is well positioned to study the impact of ambient air pollution on maternal health.…”

Cellular mechanisms linking to outdoor and indoor air pollution damage during pregnancy

“…Preeclampsia is a pregnancy pathology associated with placental dysfunction and defined by a new onset of hypertension with or without proteinuria after 20 weeks of gestation ( 70 ). A recent meta-analysis performed with data up to March 2020, summarized 9 cohort studies and concluded that maternal exposure to PM 2.5 during the third trimester of pregnancy elevates the risk of preeclampsia ( 71 ). Some epidemiological studies, use the distributed lag linear model, which is a statistical analysis model that distributes the effect of a single exposure event over a specific time period, in order to estimate the lag effect between exposure to ambient air pollutants and a health outcome ( 72 ).…”