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. Author manuscript; available in PMC: 2019 Dec 24.
Published in final edited form as: J Toxicol Environ Health B Crit Rev. 2018 Dec 24;21(5):291–319. doi: 10.1080/10937404.2018.1554515

Table 3.

Air pollutants and preeclampsia

Study Exposure Association
Reference Design Location Sample size Timing Assessment Chemical Level Modeled Exposure HR/OR/RR (95% CI)
Dadvand 2014 Retrospective cohort Barcelona, Spain N=3,182
nPE=47		 1st trimester, entire pregnancy PMF source apportionment using urban background monitor PM10 (µg/m3) Entire pregnancy: 45.8 (3.1)† Entire pregnancy, per IQR OR: 0.57 (0.30, 1.07)
PM2.5 (µg/m3) Entire pregnancy: 32.1 (6.5)† 0.55 (0.29, 1.04)
Lee 2013 Retrospective cohort PA, U.S. N=34,705
nPE=1,141		 1st trimester Space-Time Ordinary Kriging interpolation O3 (ppb) 21.7 (13.3, 30.2)† Per IQR OR: 1.12 (0.89, 1.42)
PM10 (μg/m3) 24.8 (21.7, 29.4)† 1.00 (0.87, 1.15)
PM2.5 (μg/m3) 15.6 (13.6, 17.6)† 1.15 (0.96, 1.39)
Madsen 2017 Prospective cohort Norway N=17,533
nPE=590		 Entire pregnancy Land use regression models NO2 (μg/m3) 13.6 (6.9) Per 10 μg/m3 OR: 0.89 (0.74, 1.08)
Road within 15 miles 46.6% of women 1.16 (0.96, 1.39)
Mendola 2016 Retrospective cohort U.S. N=210,508 pregnancies
nPE=10,528		 Preconception, 1st trimester, 2nd trimester, entire pregnancy Community Multiscale Air Quality model CO (ppb) Entire pregnancy: 548.3 (206.2)† Per IQR unit increase, non-asthmatics, entire pregnancy RR: 1.01 (0.96, 1.05)
NOx (ppb) 29.1 (24.3)† 0.97 (0.89, 1.04)
O3 (ppb) 28.5 (7.9)† 0.95 (0.91, 1.01)
SO2 (ppb) 3.3 (2.9)† 0.98 (0.92, 1.05)
PM10 (µg/m3) 22.0 (4.5)† 1.04 (0.99, 1.08)
PM2.5 (µg/m3) 11.9 (4.7)† 1.02 (0.94, 1.11)
Nahidi 2014 Case-control Tehran, Iran N=195
nPE=65		 Entire pregnancy Air monitoring data and subject interviews CO % high exposure: 53.3 At or above median vs. below OR: 1.92 (0.92, 4.02)
NO2 49.7 0.77 (0.37, 1.61)
SO2 55.9 0.80 (0.40, 1.60)
PM10 50.3 0.98 (0.43, 2.19)
O3 49.2 1 (0.49, 2.03)
Pedersen 2017 Prospective cohort Denmark N=72,745
nPE=1,880		 Entire pregnancy AirGIS dispersion model NO2 (μg/m3) Entire pregnancy: 11.0 (4.8)† per 10 μg/m3 increase OR: 1.07 (1.01, 1.14)
Savitz 2015 Retrospective cohort NY, U.S. N=268,601
nPE=11,166		 1st and 2nd trimester Estimation of spatial variation of air pollutants and temporal adjustment of spatial data to match gestational exposure time windows PM2.5 (µg/m3) 2nd trimester: 11.67 † Per 10 µg/m3 increase, 2nd trimester Mild PEOR: 0.8 (0.7, 0.9)
Severe PE: 1.1 (0.93, 1.3)
NO2 (ppb) 2nd trimester: 26.44 † Per 10 ppb increase, 2nd trimester Mild PE 0.93 (0.89, 0.98)
Severe PE: 1.0 (0.97, 1.1)
Wang 2018 Retrospective cohort Shenzhen, China N=1.21 million
nPE= 14,070		 1st trimester, 2nd trimester, entire pregnancy Daily average measurements PM10 (μg/m3) Entire pregnancy: 59.1 (7.0) 4th vs. 1st quartile, entire pregnancy OR: 1.32 (1.25, 1.40)
SO2 (μg/m3) 15.6 (6.4) 1.16 (1.10, 1.22)
NO2 (μg/m3) 45.9 (6.0) 1.10 (1.05, 1.16)
Wesselink 2017 Retrospective cohort Cape Cod, U.S. N=3,309
pregnancies
nPE=31		 Addresses before and during pregnancy Residential proximity to major roadways Traffic pollution Length of major roadways within 500 m buffer of residence: 1008 (592, 1571)† Length of roads in 500 m buffer: ≥1076 m of road vs. 0 m of road RR: 0.69 (0.23, 2.06)
Shortest Euclidean distance between residence and closest major roadway: 188 m (85, 362)† Distance from closest road, <100 m vs. ≥200 m 0.46 (0.16, 1.29)
Wu 2016 Case-control Basel, Switzerland N=100
nPE=50		 Address during pregnancy Surrogate measures of road density Traffic pollution Total length of major roads within 500 m of a woman’s domicile: PE: ~1550 m
Controls: ~2300 m
Yorifuji 2015 Retrospective cohort Shizuoka, Japan N=19,077
nPE=630		 Address at time of delivery Residential proximity to major roads Traffic pollution Not reported Living ≤200 m of a major road vs. >200 m OR: 1.3 (1.0, 1.8)

Abbreviations: odds ratio (OR); hazard ratio (HR); risk ratio (RR); confidence interval (CI); preeclampsia (PE); interquartile range (IQR); positive matrix factorization (PMF); particulate matter (PM); nitrogen dioxide (NO2); nitrogen oxides (NOx); carbon monoxide (CO); ozone (O3); sulfur dioxide (SO2); parts per billion (ppb); New York (NY)

(†)

Note. Levels represent mean (standard deviation), or median (IQR).