Ambient air pollution and mortality in older breast cancer patients.

Background: Although emerging studies link air pollution to mortality of breast cancer patients, large-scale evidence remains limited. We aim to evaluate associations between chronic exposures to fine particulate matter (PM2.5), ozone, and nitrogen dioxide (NO2) and mortality in a nationwide cohort of older breast cancer patients.

Cardiopulmonary hospitalization risks from wildfire and non-wildfire PM in 20 US states.

Importance: Given the increasing wildfire activity in the US, assessment of the health impacts of wildfire-specific fine particulate matter (PM), a growing source of surface air pollution, and its relative toxicity compared to non-wildfire PM is needed to support mitigation strategies.

Objective: To investigate associations of long-term exposure of wildfire-specific and non-wildfire PM with cardiopulmonary hospitalization risks.

Design Setting And Participants: We obtained over 89 million cardiopulmonary hospitalizations for residents across 20 US states from 2006 to 2019 from the State Inpatient Databases.

Chronic effects of wildfire smoke and criteria air pollutants on cardiovascular hospitalization rates in the contiguous US.

Existing studies on the health effects of smoke fine particulate matters (PM), a primary emission from wildfires, have often lacked comparison with other air pollutants, focused primarily on acute exposures, and not applied causal methods. In the present study, we obtained county-level, three-year average cardiovascular hospitalization rates for Medicare beneficiaries across the contiguous US between 2006-2016 from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. These data were linked with spatio-temporal estimates of smoke PM, non-smoke PM, nitrogen dioxide (NO), ozone, and county-level confounders.

How exposomic tools complement and enrich genomic research.

Because genetics and the environment interact to drive gene expression, we propose that exposomics must now be incorporated into the multi-omics paradigm to complete the overall biological pathway. Exposomics' groundbreaking tools and life-course framework holistically characterize non-genetic (environment) components of chronic diseases and integrate with multi-omics. This work brings forward the importance of the human exposome as a major driver of gene/protein expression across the life course.

Essential and non-essential metals in children's intellectual functioning: A multi-media biomarker approach from a Mexico City birth cohort.

Background: Metal exposures impact children's intellectual functioning from pregnancy through early childhood and beyond, being historically evaluated with single-pollutant models which might create errors estimating individual metal impacts beyond other correlated metals which arise from the same shared sources.

Aim: We evaluated the effect of exposure to non-essential and essential metals on the cognitive function of Mexican children at 48 months of age.

Methodology: We included persons from the Programming Research in Obesity, Growth, Environment, and Social Stressors (PROGRESS) longitudinal birth cohort in Mexico City with biomarker data on 13 non-essential (lead, cadmium, mercury, arsenic, strontium, barium, and cesium) and essential (manganese, copper, selenium, molybdenum, magnesium, and zinc) metals during pregnancy and early childhood.

Developmental Pb exposure increases rate of forgetting on a delayed matching-to-sample task among Mexican children.

Lead (Pb) is a potent neurotoxicant, but few studies have evaluated its effect on neurobehavioral measures that can be used in multiple species including humans. We investigated the effect of prenatal and childhood Pb exposure on children's rate of forgetting using a delayed matching-to-sample (DMTS) task among children 6 to 8 years of age. Blood Pb was measured during pregnancy (second and third trimesters) and at 4 to 6 years of age.

Newborn mitochondrial DNA copy number is associated with changes to DNA methylation that persist into childhood and are associated with cognitive development.

Background/objectives: Mitochondrial-nuclear crosstalk is critical for cell function, and nuclear DNA methylation (DNAm) may regulate this process. Mitochondria maintain an extranuclear genome, and mitochondrial DNA copy number (mtDNA-CN) has been previously associated with DNAm. However, there is little information on this relationship in children, whose brains are particularly vulnerable to energetic perturbations during development.

A Comprehensive Systematic Review and Meta-Analysis to Unravel the Noise-Dementia Nexus.

Objectives: As the aging population grows, Alzheimer's disease and related dementias (ADRD) present a major public health challenge. Environmental noise, linked to stress and sleep disruption, may increase ADRD risk. We aimed to summarize the research literature on long-term noise exposure and ADRD.

Exposure to daily mean and maximum 1-hour PM concentrations and pediatric respiratory mortality in the Mexico City Metropolitan Area.

Background: Few studies have evaluated the association between short-term PM exposure and children's respiratory mortality. This study examines the relationship between daily mean and maximum 1-hour PM exposures and age-specific pediatric respiratory mortality, addressing a gap in understanding the effects of subdaily PM peaks.

Methods: We analyzed ICD-10-coded mortality records (n = 90,566) from the Mexico City Metropolitan Area (2004-2019).

Distributed lag interaction model with index modification.

Epidemiological evidence supports an association between exposure to air pollution during pregnancy and birth and child health outcomes. Typically, such associations are estimated by regressing an outcome on daily or weekly measures of exposure during pregnancy using a distributed lag model. However, these associations may be modified by multiple factors.

Associations of Prenatal Socioeconomic Status and Childhood Working Memory: A Structural Equation Modeling Approach.

Objective: To determine if prenatal socioeconomic status (SES) is associated with childhood working memory (WM), we constructed a more precise, integrative measure of WM using variables from multiple tasks that may provide a more representative measure of WM.

Study Design: We used data from a prospective birth cohort study in Mexico City, Mexico, with N = 515 children aged 6-9 years. Prenatal SES was measured using the Mexican Association of Marketing Research and Public Opinion Agencies (AMAI) index.

Early-Life Factors and Body Mass Index Trajectories Among Children in the ECHO Cohort.

Importance: Identifying atypical body mass index (BMI) trajectories in children and understanding associated, modifiable early-life factors may help prevent childhood obesity.

Objective: To characterize multiphase BMI trajectories in children and identify associated modifiable early-life factors.

Design, Setting, And Participants: This cohort study included longitudinal data obtained from January 1997 to June 2024, from the Environmental influences on Child Health Outcomes (ECHO) cohort, which included children aged 1 to 9 years with 4 or more weight and height assessments.

Prenatal exposure to manganese and objectively measured sleep disturbances in early childhood.

Inadequate sleep in childhood can impact long-term neurodevelopmental outcomes; thus, identifying modifiable risk factors amenable to intervention is a priority. Development of sleep neuroarchitecture begins in utero. Manganese (Mn) is a trace element known to be both an essential element for optimal neurodevelopment and, at insufficient or excess levels, a neurotoxicant.

Associations of metal mixtures in early pregnancy with lung function and asthma in mid-childhood in Project Viva.

Whether fetal lung development may be vulnerable to gestational exposure to metals is unknown. We analyzed mother-child pairs in Project Viva, a prospective pre-birth cohort in eastern Massachusetts, USA. Concentrations of 11 essential and non-essential metals were measured in maternal first-trimester erythrocytes (~10 weeks).

Categorizing Concentration Confidence: A Framework for Reporting Concentration Measures from Mass Spectrometry-Based Assays.

Background: Innovation in mass spectrometry-based methods to both quantify and perform discovery has blurred the lines between targeted and untargeted assays of biospecimens. Continuous data-concentrations or intensity values generated from both methods-can be used in statistical analysis to determine associations with health outcomes, but concentration values are needed to compare measurements from one study to another to inform policy making decisions and to develop clinically relevant thresholds. As a single solution for discovery and quantitation, new hybrid-type assays derive concentration values for chemicals or metabolites but with varying degrees of uncertainty that may be greater than traditional quantitative assays.

Pregnancy as a Susceptible Period to Ambient Air Pollution Exposure on the Maternal Postpartum Metabolome.

Pregnancy is a potential critical window to air pollution exposure for long-term maternal metabolic effects. However, little is known about potential early metabolic mechanisms linking air pollution to maternal metabolic health. We included 544 pregnant Mexican women with both ambient PM levels during pregnancy and untargeted serum metabolomics to examine associations between pregnancy PM exposure (overall and monthly) and postpartum metabolites, implementing FDR-adjusted robust linear regression controlling for covariates.

Child Opportunity Index at birth and asthma with recurrent exacerbations in the US ECHO program.

Background: Environmental exposures and social determinants likely influence specific childhood asthma phenotypes.

Objective: We hypothesized that the Child Opportunity Index (COI) at birth, measuring multiple neighborhood opportunities, influences incidence rates (IRs) for asthma with recurrent exacerbations (ARE).

Methods: We tested for COI associations with ARE IRs in 15,877 children born between 1990 and 2018 in the ECHO (Environmental Influences on Child Health Outcomes) program.

Childhood Pb-induced cognitive dysfunction: structural equation modeling of hot and cold executive functions.

Background: Childhood lead [Pb] exposure has been consistently linked to neurotoxic effects related to the prefrontal cortex, a critical mediating structure involved in decision-making, planning, problem-solving, and specific aspects of short-term memory, i.e., the components of executive functions [EFs].

Do not exclude your observations: Negative cortisol awakening responses (CAR) may be biologically relevant.

The Cortisol Awakening Response (CAR) is the change in cortisol concentrations within 30-40 minutes after waking from sleep and is frequently used in stress research. Since a positive CAR is expected, we hypothesized that negative values could be associated to an underlying health condition (reflected in hematological parameters) or to environmental exposures such as lead (Pb), which has neuroendocrine effects including altered cortisol diurnal rhythms. Our aim was to analyze the prevalence of negative CAR values and their association with hematological parameters and blood Pb (BPb) levels in pregnant women (n = 900).

Windows of susceptibility to air pollution during and surrounding pregnancy in relation to longitudinal maternal measures of adiposity and lipid profiles.

Pregnancy is a critical window for long-term metabolic programming of fetal effects stemming from airborne particulate matter ≤2.5 μm (PM) exposure. Yet, little is known about long-term metabolic effects of PM exposure during and surrounding pregnancy in mothers.

Associations among positive child health measures in the environmental influences on child health outcomes (ECHO) cohort.

Purpose: Effective measurement of positive child health is critical in improving public health. A proposed measure of positive health, a positive child health index (PCHI), is based on how many of 11 specific physical, developmental, and mental health conditions a child has (ranging from 0 to 11). Accepted measures of positive health, Patient-Reported Outcome Measurement Information System (PROMIS®) measures of global health, meaning and purpose, and life satisfaction, are based on child and caregiver perceptions.

Identifying critical windows of susceptibility to perinatal lead exposure on child serum vaccine antibody levels.

Background: Mounting evidence suggests that early-life lead exposure alters immune system functions, including T-cell dependent antibody responses to childhood immunizations. However, no studies have identified critical windows of susceptibility to lead exposure.

Aim: To identify perinatal critical windows of lead exposure that are associated with antibody responses to anti-MMR (anti-measles, -mumps, and -rubella virus) and anti-DTP (anti-diphtheria, -tetanus, and -pertussis toxoids) vaccinations in Hispanic school-aged (mean± standard deviation: 4.

Co-occurring Psychopathology in Children With and Without Autism Spectrum Disorder (ASD): Differences by Sex in the ECHO Cohorts.

Purpose: Our goals were to: 1) examine the occurrence of behavioral and emotional symptoms in children on the autism spectrum in a large national sample, stratifying by sex, and 2) evaluate whether children with increased autism-related social communication deficits also experience more behavioral and emotional problems.

Methods:  Participants (n = 7,998) were from 37 cohorts from the Environmental influences on Child Health Outcomes (ECHO) Program. Cross-sectional information on demographic factors, parent-report of an ASD diagnosis by clinician, Social Responsiveness Scale (SRS) scores, and Child Behavior Checklist (CBCL) scores were obtained for children aged 2.

Impact of metabolism-disrupting chemicals and folic acid supplementation on liver injury and steatosis in mother-child pairs.

Background & Aims: Scarce knowledge about the impact of metabolism-disrupting chemicals (MDCs) on steatotic liver disease limits opportunities for intervention. We evaluated pregnancy MDC-mixture associations with liver outcomes, and effect modification by folic acid (FA) supplementation in mother-child pairs.

Methods: We studied ∼200 mother-child pairs from the Mexican PROGRESS cohort, with 43 MDCs measured during pregnancy (estimated air pollutants, blood/urine metals or metalloids, urine high- and low-molecular-weight phthalate [HMWPs, LMWPs] and organophosphate-pesticide metabolites), and serum liver enzymes (ALT, AST) at ∼9 years post-parturition.