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ORIGINAL RESEARCH article

Front. Public Health
Sec. Environmental Health and Exposome
Volume 12 - 2024 | doi: 10.3389/fpubh.2024.1489365
This article is part of the Research Topic Lifestyle and Environmental Factors and Human Fertility View all articles

Maternal Pesticide Exposure and Risk of Birth Defects: A Population-Based Cross-Sectional Study in China

Provisionally accepted
Fangfang Liu Fangfang Liu 1Xiayang Li Xiayang Li 2Jie Chen Jie Chen 2Yishuai Huang Yishuai Huang 2Shaonong Dang Shaonong Dang 2*
  • 1 Department of Stomatology, Xi'an Central Hospital, Xi'an, China
  • 2 Department of Epidemiology and Health Statistics, School of Public Health, Xi’an Jiaotong University, Xi'an, Shaanxi, China

The final, formatted version of the article will be published soon.

    Objective: This study aimed to examine the association between maternal pesticide exposure during the periconceptional period and birth defects in their offspring. Methods: A survey was conducted among 29,204 women with infants born between 2010 and 2013 in Shaanxi Province, Northwest China. All cases of birth defects were diagnosed using the International Classification of Diseases, Tenth Revision (ICD-10). Given the multistage sampling design, the generalized estimating equation (GEE) binomial regression models with log link and exchangeable correlation structures were used to analyze the association between maternal pesticide exposures and birth defects. Results: Among the 29,204 subjects, 562 mothers had children with birth defects, resulting in an incidence rate of 192.44 per 10,000 live births. The incidence of birth defects was higher in the pesticide-exposed group compared to the control group (737.46/10,000 vs. 186.04/10,000). After adjusting for baseline demographic characteristics, fertility status, nutritional factors, and environmental factors in the GEE model, the results indicated that the risk of birth defects and cardiovascular system defects in mothers exposed to pesticides during the periconceptional period was 2.39 times (95% CI: 1.84-3.10) and 3.14 times (95% CI: 1.73-5.71) higher, respectively, compared to the control group. Conclusion: This study demonstrated that maternal exposure to pesticides during the periconceptional period was associated with an increased risk of birth defects, particularly cardiovascular system defects in offspring. Consequently, it would be beneficial to avoid pesticide exposure from three months before pregnancy through the first trimester to lower birth defects in infants.

    Keywords: Pesticides, Birth defects, Perinatal pregnancy, cardiovascular system defects, Crosssectional survey

    Received: 01 Sep 2024; Accepted: 25 Nov 2024.

    Copyright: © 2024 Liu, Li, Chen, Huang and Dang. This is an open-access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License (CC BY). The use, distribution or reproduction in other forums is permitted, provided the original author(s) or licensor are credited and that the original publication in this journal is cited, in accordance with accepted academic practice. No use, distribution or reproduction is permitted which does not comply with these terms.

    * Correspondence: Shaonong Dang, Department of Epidemiology and Health Statistics, School of Public Health, Xi’an Jiaotong University, Xi'an, 710061, Shaanxi, China

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