Prenatal exposure to diurnal temperature variation and early childhood pneumonia

Abstract

Background: Childhood pneumonia is one of the leading single causes of mortality and morbidity in children worldwide, but its etiology still remains unclear.

Objective: We investigate the association between childhood pneumonia and exposure to diurnal temperature variation (DTV) in different timing windows.

Methods: We conducted a prospective cohort study of 2,598 children aged 3-6 years in Changsha, China. The lifetime prevalence of pneumonia was assessed by a questionnaire administered by the parents. Individual exposure to DTV during both prenatal and postnatal periods was estimated. Logic regression models was used to examine the association between childhood pneumonia and DTV exposure in terms of odds ratios (OR) and 95% confidence interval (CI).

Results: Lifetime prevalence of childhood pneumonia in preschool children in Changsha was high up to 38.6%. We found that childhood pneumonia was significantly associated with prenatal DTV exposure, with adjusted OR (95%CI) =1.19 (1.02-1.38), particularly during the second trimester. However, childhood pneumonia not associated with postnatal DTV exposure. Sensitivity analysis indicated that boys are more susceptible to the pneumonia risk of diurnal temperature variation than girls. We further observed that the prevalence of childhood pneumonia was decreased in recent years as DTV shrinked.

Conclusions: Early childhood pneumonia was associated with prenatal exposure to the diurnal temperature variation (DTV) during pregnancy, particularly in the second trimester, which suggests fetal origin of childhood pneumonia.

Keywords: Children; Diurnal temperature variation (DTV); Fetal origins of disease; Pneumonia; Pregnancy; Trimester.