Special Issue "Early Childhood Health Effects of Prenatal Exposures in Low and Middle Income Countries"

A special issue of Toxics (ISSN 2305-6304). This special issue belongs to the section "Environmental Epidemiology".

Deadline for manuscript submissions: 31 March 2022.

Special Issue Editor

Dr. Eric S. Coker
E-Mail Website
Guest Editor
Department of Environmental and Global Health, University of Florida, Gainesville, FL 32610, USA
Interests: perinatal health; children's health; environmental epidemiology; air pollution; exposure science

Special Issue Information

Dear Colleagues,

The prenatal period is a sensitive time of development that can influence an individual’s health trajectory. Accumulating epidemiologic data from higher income countries demonstrates that exposure to environmental pollutants during the prenatal period can have deleterious health effects in early childhood. Meanwhile, low and middle income countries (LMICs) are disproportionately burdened by environmental pollution, yet too few studies have investigated the health effects of prenatal exposures in LMICs. Since the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) have placed a greater emphasis on the growing problem of environmental pollution in lower-income developing countries, there has been recent momentum in global health towards gaining a better understanding of the effects of environmental pollution in the developing world. In this Special Issue, we aim to highlight original research or review articles that specifically address prenatal exposures and early childhood health effects in LMICs. Suggested original research articles conducted among LMIC populations may be exposure assessment studies in the prenatal period or epidemiology studies evaluating prenatal exposures and effects during the postnatal (early childhood) period. A Special Issue on this topic will help reveal recent findings in understudied, vulnerable populations while further identifying key gaps in our understanding of the public health impacts of prenatal exposure to environmental pollutants in LMICs.

I look forward to receiving your contributions.

Dr. Eric S. Coker
Guest Editor

Manuscript Submission Information

Manuscripts should be submitted online at www.mdpi.com by registering and logging in to this website. Once you are registered, click here to go to the submission form. Manuscripts can be submitted until the deadline. All papers will be peer-reviewed. Accepted papers will be published continuously in the journal (as soon as accepted) and will be listed together on the special issue website. Research articles, review articles as well as short communications are invited. For planned papers, a title and short abstract (about 100 words) can be sent to the Editorial Office for announcement on this website.

Submitted manuscripts should not have been published previously, nor be under consideration for publication elsewhere (except conference proceedings papers). All manuscripts are thoroughly refereed through a single-blind peer-review process. A guide for authors and other relevant information for submission of manuscripts is available on the Instructions for Authors page. Toxics is an international peer-reviewed open access monthly journal published by MDPI.

Please visit the Instructions for Authors page before submitting a manuscript. The Article Processing Charge (APC) for publication in this open access journal is 1600 CHF (Swiss Francs). Submitted papers should be well formatted and use good English. Authors may use MDPI's English editing service prior to publication or during author revisions.

Keywords

  • low- and middle-income countries
  • prenatal exposure
  • children’s health
  • sustainable development goals

Published Papers (1 paper)

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Research

Article
Prenatal Household Air Pollution Exposure, Cord Blood Mononuclear Cell Telomere Length and Age Four Blood Pressure: Evidence from a Ghanaian Pregnancy Cohort
Toxics 2021, 9(7), 169; https://doi.org/10.3390/toxics9070169 - 14 Jul 2021
Viewed by 540
Abstract
Associations between prenatal household air pollution exposure (HAP), newborn telomere length and early childhood blood pressure are unknown. Methods: Pregnant women were randomized to liquefied petroleum gas (LPG) stove, improved biomass stove or control (traditional, open fire cook stove). HAP was measured by [...] Read more.
Associations between prenatal household air pollution exposure (HAP), newborn telomere length and early childhood blood pressure are unknown. Methods: Pregnant women were randomized to liquefied petroleum gas (LPG) stove, improved biomass stove or control (traditional, open fire cook stove). HAP was measured by personal carbon monoxide (CO) (n = 97) and fine particulate matter (PM2.5) (n = 60). At birth, cord blood mononuclear cells (CBMCs) were collected for telomere length (TL) analyses. At child age four years, we measured resting blood pressure (BP) (n = 97). We employed multivariable linear regression to determine associations between prenatal HAP and cookstove arm and assessed CBMC relative to TL separately. We then examined associations between CBMC TL and resting BP. Results: Higher prenatal PM2.5 exposure was associated with reduced TL (β = −4.9% (95% CI −8.6, −0.4), p = 0.03, per 10 ug/m3 increase in PM2.5). Infants born to mothers randomized to the LPG cookstove had longer TL (β = 55.3% (95% CI 16.2, 109.6), p < 0.01)) compared with control. In all children, shorter TL was associated with higher systolic BP (SBP) (β = 0.35 mmHg (95% CI 0.001, 0.71), p = 0.05, per 10% decrease in TL). Increased prenatal HAP exposure is associated with shorter TL at birth. Shorter TL at birth is associated with higher age four BP, suggesting that TL at birth may be a biomarker of HAP-associated disease risk. Full article
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