Iana Malasevskaia
Private Clinic of Obstetrics and Gynecology, Sana’a, Republic of Yemen
Sebastian Muñoz Nieto
Rehabilitation Department, Hospital del Trabajador, Santiago, Chile
Elsa Rueda-Borrero
Internal Medicina Department, Complejo Hospitalario Dr. Arnulfo Arias Madrid, Panama City, Panama
Silvia Pereira Goulart
HIV Vaccine Trials Network, Seattle, Washington, United States
Maria Beatriz Bastos Lucchesi
Clinical Trials and Pharmacovigilance Center, Instituto Butantan, São Paulo, Brazil
Maria Carolina Fontana Antunes de Oliveira
University of São Paulo, Ribeirão Preto Faculty of Medicine, Ribeirão Preto, Brazil
Pedro Luiz Lage Bodour Danielian
Universidade Federal de Minas Gerais, Belo Horizonte, MG, Brazil
Ahmed Shaaban
Department of Neurosurgery, University of Virginia , Charlottessville, Virginia, USA
Juliana Perez Pinzon
Division of Cardiovascular Medicine, Harvard-Thorndike Arrhythmia Institute, Beth Israel Deaconess Medical Center, Boston, Massachusetts, United States
André Silva Alves
University of Geneva, Faculty of Medicine, Geneva, Switzerland
Daniela Marín Araya
Department of Clinical Information Management, Clinica Davila, Santiago, Chile
Julia Hansen
University Hospital LMU Munich - Institute of clinical neuroimmunology, Munich, Germany
Augusto Cesar Villar de Almeida
University of São Paulo, Faculty of Medicine
Valentina Ferrer Valencia
Radiology Department, Boston Children's Hospital, Boston, Massachusetts, United States
Alain Freund
European University of Cyprus, Nicosia, Cyprus
Mildred Tavarez
American Academy of Pediatrics, Council on Immigrant Child and Family Health, Co-Chair of Member Engagement, United States.
Ana Lucia Portilla
Faculdade de Medicina - Universidad Francisco Marroquín, Guatemala
Abdelaziz Mohamed
Internal Medicine Resident , HMC , Qatar.
Andrea Carolina Quintero
Boston childrens Hospital, Boston, United States.
Zamar Anyela Malca Calderon
Facultad de medicina Alberto Hurtado- Universidad peruana Cayetano Heredia, Peru
Termeh Jahanbakhsh
Student at Masters Program for Clinical Research, Dresden International University, Dresden, Germany
Carlos Montalván
Facultad de Medicina Clinica Alemana-Universidad del Desarrollo, Santiago, Chile
Igmilka Dayana Milles Dommar
Oncology, Hematology and Immunology Department, Helios St. Johannes Klinik, Duisburg, Germany
Yusuf Adelabu
Department of Medicine, Faculty of Clinical Sciences, College of Medicine, University of Lagos, Lagos, Nigeria
Abstract
Introduction: Air pollution exposure has been associated with general negative effects on the nervous system and, consequently, on children’s neurodevelopment. This review aims to assess the main damages of prenatal air pollution exposure on the offspring’s neurodevelopment.
Methods: A systematic review was conducted using PubMed/Medline, Cochrane, Ovid, and Scopus. The studies from the last ten years were assessed in compliance with PRISMA 2020 Guidelines and evaluated regarding quality.
Results: From an initial 675 references, 24 observational studies encompassing 115,228 children aged 0 to 10 years were deemed eligible. On average, the women in the studies were around 30 years old at delivery. Various exposure assessment methods, pollutants, and neurodevelopmental outcome scales were utilized. All the studies included found an association between air pollutant exposure and neurodevelopment in different magnitudes. All 24 studies included in our review were observational and, therefore, assessed using the Newcastle-Ottawa Scale (NOS). Of them, 19 were considered good quality, 1 was fair quality, and 4 were poor quality.
Conclusion: This comprehensive review presents evidence suggesting that prenatal exposure to air pollution has a harmful impact on cognitive and neurological development in offspring. However, future studies are needed to corroborate these results.