Findings of indoor air pollution and childhood obesity in a cross-sectional study of Chinese schoolchildren.

Background: Air pollution exposures are increasingly suspected to influence the development of childhood adiposity, especially focusing on outdoor exposure, but few studies investigated indoor exposure and childhood obesity.
Objectives: We aimed to examine the association between exposure to multiple indoor air pollutants and childhood obesity in Chinese schoolchildren.
Methods: In 2019, we recruited 6499 children aged 6-12 years from five Chinese elementary schools in Guangzhou, China. We measured age-sex-specific body mass index z score (z-BMI), waist circumference (WC), waist-to-hip ratio (WHR), and waist-to-height ratio (WHtR) on standard procedures. Four different indoor air pollution (IAP) exposures, including cooking oil fumes (COFs), home decoration, secondhand smoke (SHS), and incense burning, were collected by questionnaire and then converted into an IAP exposure index with four categories. Association between indoor air pollutants and childhood overweight/obesity as well as four obese anthropometric indices were assessed by logistic regression models and multivariable linear regression models, respectively.
Results: Children exposed to ≥3 types of indoor air pollutants had higher z-BMI (coefficient [β]:0.142, 95% confidence interval [CI]:0.011-0.274) and higher risk of overweight/obesity (odd ratio [OR]:1.27, 95%CI:1.01-1.60). And a dose-response relationship was discovered between the IAP exposure index and z-BMI as well as overweight/obesity (p _{for trend} <0.05). We also found that exposure to SHS and COFs was positively associated with z-BMI and overweight/obesity (p < 0.05). Moreover, there was a significant interaction between SHS exposure and COFs on the higher risk of overweight/obesity among schoolchildren. Boys appear more susceptible to multiple indoor air pollutants than girls.
Conclusions: Indoor air pollution exposures were positively associated with higher obese anthropometric indices and increased odds of overweight/obesity in Chinese schoolchildren. More well-designed cohort studies are needed to verify our results.
Competing Interests: Declaration of competing interest The authors declare that they have no known competing financial interests or personal relationships that could have appeared to influence the work reported in this paper.
(Copyright © 2023 Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved.)