Air Pollution and Daily Mobility of Pregnant Women Identification of Critical Windows of Exposure

Overview

This study is conducted to assess the role of pregnant women's daily mobility living in the Eurometropole of Strasbourg in a context of the existence of environmental exposure disparities (PM10, PM2.5, NO2). Furthermore, this study will tend to identify the critical windows of exposure and of greater risk of the adverse pregnancy outcomes as low birth weight and prematurity. A second question addressed in this work is to assess the relationship between the pregnant women's socio-economic status and the air pollution exposure (PM10, PM2.5, NO2).taking into account the spatio-temporal variations of the exposure as well as the critical windows of exposure during pregnancy. The present work deals with the following question "how does the combination of environmental exposure, socio-economic status and women's daily mobility, could contribute to socio-spatial inequalities in the health of the newborn? The underlying hypothesis is that the accumulation, in given area, of environmental exposures (as PM10, PM2.5 and NO2), of unfavorable living conditions (socio-economic environment) and individual factors (specific spatio-temporal trajectory) would induce an increased risk for the health of the newborn, (more particularly in terms of birth weight and term of birth). This hypothesis is structured 4 sub-hypotheses: i) The misclassification of exposure is socially distributed among pregnant women living in the Eurometropole of Strasbourg. ii) Beyond maternal and fetal characteristics, pregnant women who reside in a more socio-economically deprived neighborhood and / or with higher levels of environmental exposure to PM10, PM2.5 and NO2 are more at risk of preterm newborn and low birth weight newborn. iii) The accumulation of environmental exposures of the pregnant women and their daily mobility over their territory during the pregnancy increase the health inequalities of the newborn. iv) The critical windows of fetal exposure to pollutants is related to the socioeconomic level of their neighborhood and to the daily mobility of the women in their territory during pregnancy. Women are included in the study at the time of their first or second trimester ultrasound. Here are the tools used in the study: Descriptive survey of their idividuals characteristics, descriptive survey of women's mobility to assess their exposure during each trimester of pregnancy.