Document Type
Article
Publication Date
9-9-2025
Journal / Book Title
Air Quality, Atmosphere & Health
Abstract
Exposure to air pollution adversely affects health and is highly associated with birth outcomes. This study analyzes the relationship between air pollution and low birth weight (LBW; less than 2,500 g at birth) at the county level in the United States. Using the latest publicly available data from the County Health Rankings and Roadmaps across 3,027 counties and equivalents, simple and quantile regression analyses were conducted to test the association between the average daily density of fine particulate matter (PM2.5) and LBW. The LBW data were from 2016 to 2022 from the National Center for Health Statistics and PM2.5 data were obtained from Environmental Public Health Tracking Network from 2019. We controlled for key covariates. Simple regression found that PM2.5 (p < .001) and children in poverty (p < .001) were positively associated with LBW, while rural population (p < .001) was negatively associated. Quantile regression results showed that PM2.5 was associated at 10th (p = .001) and 50th quantiles (p < .001), but not 90th quantile (p = .32), implying that air pollution may play a more pronounced role in counties with lower to moderate LBW rates, whereas counties with highest LBW may be driven by other socioeconomic factors such as children in poverty (p < .001) and uninsured population (p = .01). The findings highlight the strong link between air pollution and LBW which could have long-term health consequences. The differential associations of PM2.5 and LBW across the LBW distribution have important implications for potential interventions that may require tailored approach to risk profiles of the geography.
DOI
10.1007/s11869-025-01814-4
MSU Digital Commons Citation
Park, Eunice Y. and Mainali, Ranju, "Geographic disparities in birth outcomes: County-level investigation on PM2.5 and low birth weight in the United States" (2025). Department of Public Health Scholarship and Creative Works. 237.
https://digitalcommons.montclair.edu/public-health-facpubs/237
Published Citation
Park, E.Y., Mainali, R. Geographic disparities in birth outcomes: County-level investigation on PM2.5 and low birth weight in the United States. Air Qual Atmos Health (2025). https://doi.org/10.1007/s11869-025-01814-4
Included in
Environmental Health and Protection Commons, Environmental Indicators and Impact Assessment Commons, Public Health Education and Promotion Commons
Comments
This article is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International License, which permits use, sharing, adaptation, distribution and reproduction in any medium or format, as long as you give appropriate credit to the original author(s) and the source, provide a link to the Creative Commons license, and indicate if changes were made. To view a copy of this license, visit http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/.