Prenatal and postnatal exposure to NO and child attentional function at 4-5years of age.

Background: Prenatal and postnatal exposure to air pollution has been linked to cognitive impairment in children, but very few studies have assessed its association with attentional function.

Objectives: To evaluate the association between prenatal and postnatal exposure to nitrogen dioxide (NO) and attentional function in children at 4-5years of age.

Methods: We used data from four regions of the Spanish INMA-Environment and Childhood-Project, a population-based birth cohort. Using land-use regression models (LUR), we estimated prenatal and postnatal NO levels in all of these regions at the participants' residential addresses. We assessed attentional function using the Kiddie-Conners Continuous Performance Test (K-CPT). We combined the region-specific adjusted effect estimates using random-effects meta-analysis.

Results: We included 1298 children with complete data. Prenatal exposure to NO was associated with an impaired standard error of the hit reaction time (HRT(SE)) (increase of 1.12ms [95% CI; 0.22 a 2.02] per 10μg/m increase in prenatal NO) and increased omission errors (6% [95% CI; 1.01 to 1.11] per 10μg/m increase in prenatal NO). Postnatal exposure to NO resulted in a similar but borderline significant increase of omission errors (5% [95% CI; =0.99 to 1.11] per 10μg/m increase in postnatal NO). These associations did not vary markedly between regions, and were mainly observed in girls. Commission errors and lower detectability were associated with prenatal and postnatal exposure to NO only in some regions.

Conclusions: This study indicates that higher exposure to ambient NO, mainly during pregnancy and to a lesser extent postnatally, is associated with impaired attentional function in children at 4-5years of age.