Maternal exposure to ambient air temperature during pregnancy and early childhood pneumonia

Background: Pneumonia has been widely recognized as the leading cause of death in children worldwide, but its etiology still remains unclear. Objective: We examined the association between maternal exposure to ambient air temperature during pregnancy and lifetime pneumonia in the offspring. Methods: We conducted a cohort study of 2598 preschool children aged 3-6 years in Changsha, China. The lifetime prevalence of pneumonia was assessed using questionnaire. We backwards estimated each child's exposure to air temperature during prenatal and postnatal periods. Multiple regression model was used to examine the association between childhood pneumonia and exposure to air temperature in terms of odd ratios (OR) and 95% confidence interval (CI). Results: Prevalence of childhood pneumonia in Changsha was high up to 38.6%. We found that childhood pneumonia was significantly associated with prenatal exposure to air temperature, with adjusted OR (95% CI) = 1.77 (1.23-2.54) for an interquartile range (IQR) increase in temperature, particularly during the second trimester with adjusted OR (95% CI) = 2.26 (1.32-3.89). Boys are more susceptible to the risk of pneumonia due to air temperature than girls. We further observed that maternal exposure to extreme heat days during pregnancy increased the risk of pneumonia in the offspring. Conclusions: Maternal exposure to air temperature during pregnancy, particularly the second trimester, was associated with pneumonia in the children, providing the evidence for fetal origins of pneumonia.