The association of early-life exposure to air pollution with lung function at ~17.5 years in the “Children of 1997” Hong Kong Chinese Birth Cohort

Background Early-life air pollution exposure is associated with lung function in children and adolescents. However, whether the association of prenatal and early postnatal exposure to air pollution with lung function continues into adulthood remains unclear. Objective To investigate the associations of early exposure to air pollution with lung function at ~17.5 years in a non-western developed setting with more concentrated air pollutants. Methods We examined the associations of exposure to particular matter with an aerodynamic diameter of <10 μm (PM 10 ), nitrogen dioxides (NO 2 ), nitric oxide (NO), sulfur dioxide (SO 2 ) in standard deviations (SD)) at different early life stages with lung function (indicated by forced vital capacity (FVC), forced expiratory volume in 1 s (FEV 1 ) and forced expiratory flow at 25%–75% of the pulmonary volume (FEF 25%–75% )) in SD at ~17.5 years, personal history of wheezing and asthma in the population-representative Hong Kong Chinese birth cohort “Children of 1997”( n = 2942). Results Higher in utero and infancy and toddlerhood NO 2 were associated with lower FEV 1 (−0.022, 95% confidence interval (CI) –0.029 to −0.015 and − 0.026, 95% CI –0.033 to −0.019), FEV 1 /FVC (−0.035, 95% CI –0.050 to −0.021 and –0.052, 95% CI –0.066 to −0.038) and FEF 25%–75% (−0.031, 95% CI –0.040 to −0.022 and –0.043, 95% CI –0.051 to −0.035). A similar association was observed for NO. Weak associations of NO 2 and NO with FVC were observed (–0.011, 95% CI –0.018 to −0.003 and –0.010, 95% CI –0.020 to −0.001). NO x was associated with higher risk of wheezing (1.08, 95% CI 1.03 to 1.14) but not asthma (1.02, 95% CI 0.94 to 1.11). SO 2 and PM 10 were not clearly associated with lung function, wheezing or asthma. Conclusion Our findings suggest that early exposure to air pollution from NO 2 may have long-term effects on lung function, which could affect respiratory health throughout life.