Early-life exposure to residential black carbon and childhood cardiometabolic health

Chloe Friedman; Dana Dabelea; Deborah H Glueck; William B Allshouse; John L Adgate; Kayleigh P Keller; Sheena E Martenies; Sheryl Magzamen; Anne P Starling

doi:10.1016/j.envres.2023.117285

Early-life exposure to residential black carbon and childhood cardiometabolic health

Environ Res. 2023 Dec 15;239(Pt 2):117285. doi: 10.1016/j.envres.2023.117285. Epub 2023 Oct 11.

Authors

Chloe Friedman¹, Dana Dabelea², Deborah H Glueck³, William B Allshouse⁴, John L Adgate⁴, Kayleigh P Keller⁵, Sheena E Martenies⁶, Sheryl Magzamen⁷, Anne P Starling⁸

Affiliations

¹ Department of Epidemiology, Colorado School of Public Health, University of Colorado Anschutz Medical Campus, Aurora, CO, USA; Lifecourse Epidemiology of Adiposity and Diabetes (LEAD) Center, University of Colorado Anschutz Medical Campus, Aurora, CO, USA. Electronic address: chloe.friedman@cuanschutz.edu.
² Department of Epidemiology, Colorado School of Public Health, University of Colorado Anschutz Medical Campus, Aurora, CO, USA; Lifecourse Epidemiology of Adiposity and Diabetes (LEAD) Center, University of Colorado Anschutz Medical Campus, Aurora, CO, USA; Department of Pediatrics, School of Medicine, University of Colorado Anschutz Medical Campus, Aurora, CO, USA.
³ Lifecourse Epidemiology of Adiposity and Diabetes (LEAD) Center, University of Colorado Anschutz Medical Campus, Aurora, CO, USA; Department of Pediatrics, School of Medicine, University of Colorado Anschutz Medical Campus, Aurora, CO, USA.
⁴ Department of Environmental and Occupational Health, Colorado School of Public Health, University of Colorado Anschutz Medical Campus, Aurora, CO, USA.
⁵ Department of Statistics, Colorado State University, Fort Collins, CO, USA.
⁶ Department of Kinesiology and Community Health, University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign, Urbana, IL, USA.
⁷ Department of Environmental and Radiological Health Sciences, Colorado State University, Fort Collins, CO, USA; Department of Epidemiology, Colorado School of Public Health, Colorado State University, Fort Collins, CO, USA.
⁸ Department of Epidemiology, Colorado School of Public Health, University of Colorado Anschutz Medical Campus, Aurora, CO, USA; Lifecourse Epidemiology of Adiposity and Diabetes (LEAD) Center, University of Colorado Anschutz Medical Campus, Aurora, CO, USA; Department of Epidemiology, Gillings School of Global Public Health, University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill, Chapel Hill, NC, USA.

PMID: 37832765
PMCID: PMC10842121 (available on 2024-12-15)
DOI: 10.1016/j.envres.2023.117285

Abstract

Background: Early life exposure to air pollution, such as particulate matter ≤2.5 μm (PM_2.5), may be associated with obesity and adverse cardiometabolic health outcomes in childhood. However, the toxicity of PM_2.5 varies according to its chemical composition. Black carbon (BC) is a constituent of PM_2.5, but few studies have examined its impact on childhood cardiometabolic health. Therefore, we examined relationships between prenatal and early childhood exposure to BC and markers of adiposity and cardiometabolic health in early childhood.

Methods: This study included 578 mother-child pairs enrolled in the Healthy Start study (2009-2014) living in the Denver-metro area. Using a spatiotemporal prediction model, we assessed average residential black carbon levels during pregnancy and in the year prior to the early childhood follow-up visit at approximately 5 years old. We estimated associations between prenatal and early childhood BC and indicators of adiposity and cardiometabolic biomarkers in early childhood (mean 4.8 years; range, 4.0, 8.3), using linear regression.

Results: We found higher early childhood BC was associated with higher percent fat mass, fat mass index, insulin, and homeostatic model assessment for insulin resistance (HOMA-IR), and lower leptin and waist circumference at approximately 5 years old, after adjusting for covariates. For example, per interquartile range (IQR) increase in early childhood BC (IQR, 0.49 μg/m³) there was 3.32% higher fat mass (95% CI; 2.05, 4.49). Generally, we did not find consistent evidence of associations between prenatal BC and cardiometabolic health outcomes in early childhood, except for an inverse association between prenatal BC and adiponectin, an adipocyte-secreted hormone typically inversely associated with adiposity.

Conclusions: Higher early childhood, but not in utero, ambient concentrations of black carbon, a component of air pollution, were associated with greater adiposity and altered insulin homeostasis at approximately 5 years old. Future studies should examine whether these changes persist later in life.

Keywords: Adiposity; Air pollution; Black carbon; Early childhood; Lipids; Prenatal exposure.

MeSH terms

Air Pollutants* / analysis
Air Pollutants* / toxicity
Air Pollution* / analysis
Carbon
Cardiovascular Diseases* / chemically induced
Cardiovascular Diseases* / epidemiology
Child, Preschool
Environmental Exposure
Female
Humans
Insulin
Obesity / chemically induced
Particulate Matter / analysis
Pregnancy
Soot / analysis

Substances

Air Pollutants
Particulate Matter
Soot
Insulin
Carbon

Abstract

MeSH terms

Substances

Grants and funding