Outdoor and indoor air pollution pollutants can be a potential cause to a lot of negative effects on the health of pregnant women and outcome of pregnancy. The objective of this paper was to estimate the influence of outdoor and indoor air pollution on the health of pregnant women and outcome of pregnancy.
Material and methods: The study subjects were the pregnant women, non-smokers, who were not professionally exposed to air pollution. They were divided into the exposed group (n = 189) and control group (n = 178) during the exposure to outdoor air pollution. The data on exposure to sources of indoor air pollution (smoke produced by burning fossil fuels and passive smoking) during pregnancy were obtained from the questionnaire. Data on health condition and outcome of pregnancy were obtained from medical records of tested pregnant women.
Results: The research results have shown that the frequency of anemia (OR = 6.76; 95% CI = 1.28-7.72), upper respiratory symptoms (OR = 9.53; 95% CI = 1.32-3.8) and bleeding (OR = 20.5; 95% CI = 2.03-6.97) was significantly higher in pregnant women exposed to outdoor air pollution as compared with the control group. The occurrence of upper respiratory symptoms (OR = 40.42; 95% CI = 2.96-8.91) and bleeding (OR = 53.21; 95% CI = 4.3-15.73) was significantly higher in pregnant women who had been exposed to fossil fuel smoke. Exposure to passive smoking had significant influence on the development of upper respiratory symptoms (OR = 34.58; 95% CI = 3.05-11.66).