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Low birth weight is one of the leading factors for infant morbidity and mortality. To a large extent affect, various maternal risk factors are associated with pregnancy outcomes by increasing odds of delivering an infant with low birth weight. Despite this association, understanding the maternal risk factors affecting term low birth weight has been a challenging task. To date, limited studies have been conducted in India that exert independent magnitude of these effects on term low birth weight. The aim of this review is to examine the current knowledge of maternal risk factors that contribute to term low birth weight in the Indian population. In order to identify the potentially relevant articles, an extensive literature search was conducted using PubMed, Goggle Scholar and IndMed databases (1993 - Dec 2020). Our results indicate that maternal age, educational status, socio-economic status, ethnicity, parity, pre-pregnancy weight, maternal stature, maternal body mass index, obstetric history, maternal anaemia, gestational weight gain, short pregnancy outcome, hypertension during pregnancy, infection, antepartum haemorrhage, tobacco consumption, maternal occupation, maternal psychological stress, alcohol consumption, antenatal care and mid-upper arm circumference have all independent effects on term low birth weight in the Indian population. Further, we argue that exploration for various other dimensions of maternal factors and underlying pathways can be useful for a better understanding of how it exerts independent association on term low birth weight in the Indian sub-continent. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Air pollution is a growing public health concern in developing countries and poses a huge epidemiological burden. Despite the growing awareness of ill effects of air pollution, the evidence linking air pollution and health effects is sparse. This requires environmental exposure scientist and public health researchers to work more cohesively to generate evidence on health impacts of air pollution in developing countries for policy advocacy. In the Global Environmental and Occupational Health (GEOHealth) Program, we aim to build exposure assessment model to estimate ambient air pollution exposure at a very fine resolution which can be linked with health outcomes leveraging well-phenotyped cohorts which have information on geolocation of households of study participants. We aim to address how air pollution interacts with meteorological and weather parameters and other aspects of the urban environment, occupational classification, and socioeconomic status, to affect cardiometabolic risk factors and disease outcomes. This will help us generate evidence for cardiovascular health impacts of ambient air pollution in India needed for necessary policy advocacy. The other exploratory aims are to explore mediatory role of the epigenetic mechanisms (DNA methylation) and vitamin D exposure in determining the association between air pollution exposure and cardiovascular health outcomes. Other components of the GEOHealth program include building capacity and strengthening the skills of public health researchers in India through variety of training programs and international collaborations. This will help generate research capacity to address environmental and occupational health research questions in India. The expertise that we bring together in GEOHealth hub are public health, clinical epidemiology, environmental exposure science, statistical modeling, and policy advocacy. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Objective: Eclampsia is a potentially fatal disorder in pregnant women and remains an important cause of maternal and perinatal child morbidity and death worldwide. We aimed to assess the prevalence of and risk factors for convulsions (not occurring from fever) during pregnancy in Indian women. Convulsion is a key symptom suggestive of eclampsia. Methods: Cross-sectional data from India's third National Family Health Survey, conducted during 2005-2006 were used. Self-reported information on convulsions during pregnancy was obtained from 39,657 women aged 15-49 years who had a live birth in the 5 years preceding the survey. Multiple logistic regression analysis was used to explore risk factors for convulsion inpregnancy. Results: Overall, 1 in 10 women reported having convulsions in their most recent pregnancy. The prevalence was significantly higher in women living in rural areas compared with those living in urban areas (11.3% vs. 7.4%; P<0.0001), with marked state and geographic variation. The odds of convulsions were significantly higher in women with a twin pregnancy [odds ratio (OR) 2.12; 95% confidence interval (CI) 1.45-3.11], a previously terminated pregnancy (OR 1.32; 95% CI 1.20-1.45), diabetes (OR 1.37; 95% CI 0.99-1.89), or asthma (OR 1.85; 95% CI 1.35-2.54), in women who were alerted to pregnancy complications (OR 2.78; 95% CI 2.50-3.08), in Sikh women (OR 1.73; 95% CI 1.28-2.33), in women in a low social group (OR 1.40; 95% CI 1.25-1.58), and in women residing in central India (OR 1.51; 95% CI 1.31-1.74) or eastern India (OR 1.33; 95% CI 1.14-1.54) with reference to their counterparts. Conclusion: Our findings from a large population-based nationally representative sample of Indian women indicate a high prevalence of convulsions, a symptom suggestive of eclampsia, and its association with several maternal, lifestyle risk factors and sociodemographic characteristics. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

High-resolution assessment of historical levels is essential for assessing the health effects of ambient air pollution in the large Indian population. The diversity of geography, weather patterns, and progressive urbanization, combined with a sparse ground monitoring network makes it challenging to accurately capture the spatiotemporal patterns of ambient fine particulate matter (PM 2.5 ) pollution in India. We developed a model for daily average ambient PM 2.5 between 2008 and 2020 based on monitoring data, meteorology, land use, satellite observations, and emissions inventories. Daily average predictions at each 1 km × 1 km grid from each learner were ensembled using a Gaussian process regression with anisotropic smoothing over spatial coordinates, and regression calibration was used to account for exposure error. Cross-validating by leaving monitors out, the ensemble model had an R 2 of 0.86 at the daily level in the validation data and outperformed each component learner (by 5-18%). Annual average levels in different zones ranged between 39.7 μg/m 3 (interquartile range: 29.8-46.8) in 2008 and 30.4 μg/m 3 (interquartile range: 22.7-37.2) in 2020, with a cross-validated (CV)- R 2 of 0.94 at the annual level. Overall mean absolute daily errors (MAE) across the 13 years were between 14.4 and 25.4 μg/m 3 . We obtained high spatial accuracy with spatial R 2 greater than 90% and spatial MAE ranging between 7.3-16.5 μg/m 3 with relatively better performance in urban areas at low and moderate elevation. We have developed an important validated resource for studying PM 2.5 at a very fine spatiotemporal resolution, which allows us to study the health effects of PM 2.5 across India and to identify areas with exceedingly high levels., (© The Author(s) 2024. Published by Oxford University Press on behalf of National Academy of Sciences.)

Background: African populations are experiencing health transitions due to rapid urbanization and international migration. However, the role of biological aging in this emerging burden of cardiometabolic diseases (CMD) among migrant and non-migrant Africans is unknown. We aimed to examine differences in epigenetic age acceleration (EAA) as measured by four clocks (Horvath, Hannum, PhenoAge and GrimAge) and their associations with cardiometabolic factors among migrant Ghanaians in Europe and non-migrant Ghanaians., Methods: Genome-wide DNA methylation (DNAm) data of 712 Ghanaians from cross-sectional RODAM study were used to quantify EAA. We assessed correlation of DNAmAge measures with chronological age, and then performed linear regressions to determine associations of body mass index (BMI), fasting blood glucose (FBG), blood pressure, alcohol consumption, smoking, physical activity, and one-carbon metabolism nutrients with EAA among migrant and non-migrants. We replicated our findings among 172 rural-urban sibling pairs from India migration study and among 120 native South Africans from PURE-SA-NW study., Findings: We found that Ghanaian migrants have lower EAA than non-migrants. Within migrants, higher FBG was positively associated with EAA measures. Within non-migrants, higher BMI, and Vitamin B9 (folate) intake were negatively associated with EAA measures. Our findings on FBG, BMI and folate were replicated in the independent cohorts., Interpretation: Our study shows that migration is negatively associated with EAA among Ghanaians. Moreover, cardiometabolic factors are differentially associated with EAA within migrant and non-migrant subgroups. Our results call for context-based interventions for CMD among transitioning populations that account for effects of biological aging., Funding: European Commission., Competing Interests: Declarations of interests We declare no competing interests.

Background: Type 2 diabetes is a global problem that is increasingly prevalent in low and middle income countries including India, and is partly attributed to increased urbanisation. Genotype clearly plays a role in type 2 diabetes susceptibility. However, the role of DNA methylation and its interaction with genotype and metabolic measures is poorly understood. This study aimed to establish whether methylation patterns of type 2 diabetes genes differ between distinct Indian and European populations and/or change following rural to urban migration in India., Methods: Quantitative DNA methylation analysis in Indians and Europeans using Sequenom ® EpiTYPER ® technology was undertaken in three genes: ADCY5, FTO and KCNJ11. Metabolic measures and genotype data were also analysed., Results: Consistent differences in DNA methylation patterns were observed between Indian and European populations in ADCY5, FTO and KCNJ11. Associations were demonstrated between FTO rs9939609 and BMI and between ADCY5rs17295401 and HDL levels in Europeans. However, these observations were not linked to local variation in DNA methylation levels. No differences in methylation patterns were observed in urban-dwelling migrants compared to their non-migrant rural-dwelling siblings in India., Conclusions: Analysis of DNA methylation at three type 2 diabetes susceptibility loci highlighted geographical and ethnic differences in methylation patterns. These differences may be attributed to genetic and/or region-specific environmental factors., Competing Interests: The authors declare that they have no competing interests.