Maternal folic acid supplementation during pregnancy in association with childhood overweight or obesity.

OBJECTIVE: This study aimed to examine associations of maternal folic acid supplementation (FAS) during pregnancy with childhood overweight or obesity (OWO) or adiposity. METHODS: In a population-based cohort of 1479 children, maternal FAS during pregnancy was assessed retrospectively by questionnaires. BMI and body fat percentages were measured at a mean age of 6.4 years. Pertinent factors were accounted for in data analyses. RESULTS: Maternal FAS during pregnancy was negatively associated with OWO (adjusted odds ratio: 0.70; 95% CI: 0.50 to 0.99). There were inverse associations of maternal FAS during pregnancy with BMI z score (ß: -0.22; 95% CI: -0.39 to -0.05), whole body fat percentage (ß: -1.28; 95% CI: -2.27 to -0.30), trunk fat percentage (ß: -1.41; 95% CI: -2.78 to -0.04), and limb fat percentage (ß: -1.31; 95% CI: -2.32 to -0.30). Stratified analyses found inverse associations of FAS during pregnancy with OWO, BMI z score, and body fat percentages predominantly among children without breastfeeding and whose parents had a below-tertiary educational level. CONCLUSIONS: This study provides novel evidence that maternal FAS during pregnancy was significantly associated with a decreased risk of childhood OWO and adiposity, particularly among children with no breastfeeding and lower parental educational level.

The outbreak of COVID-19 in Taiwan in late spring 2021: combinations of specific weather conditions and related factors.

This study aimed to investigate the impact of weather conditions on the daily incidence of the COVID-19 pandemic in late spring 2021 in Taiwan, which is unlike the weather conditions of the COVID-19 outbreak in 2020. Meteorological parameters such as maximum daily temperature, relative humidity, and wind speed were included. The Spearman rank correlation test was used to evaluate the relationship between weather and daily domestic COVID-19 cases. The maximum daily temperature had a positively significant correlation with daily new COVID-19 cases within a 14-day lag period, while the relative humidity and wind speed has a fairly high correlation with the number of daily cases within a 13- and 14-day lag, respectively. In addition, the weather characteristics during this period were an increasingly high temperature, with steady high relative humidity and slightly decreasing wind speed. Our study revealed the weather conditions at the time of the domestic outbreak of COVID-19 in Taiwan in May 2021 and the possible association between weather factors and the COVID-19 pandemic. Further large-scale analysis of weather factors is essential for understanding the impact of weather on the spread of infectious diseases.

Residential greenness and birth outcomes: Evaluating the mediation and interaction effects of particulate air pollution.

BACKGROUND: The few studies that examined the association between residential greenness and birth outcomes have produced inconsistent results, and the underlying mechanisms of these associations remain unclear. OBJECTIVES: We examined the mediation and interaction effects of particulate matter (PM) air pollution on the relationship between greenness exposure during the first and third trimesters of pregnancy and birth outcomes, including preterm birth (PTB), term low birth weight (TLBW), small for gestational age (SGA), birth weight (BW), and head circumference (HC). METHODS: We conducted a retrospective cohort study on 16,184 singleton live births between 2010 and 2012 in Taiwan. Residential greenness was estimated based on the normalized difference vegetation index (NDVI), and the PM information during the first and third trimesters was estimated through hybrid kriging land use regression and ordinary kriging interpolation methods. Multiple regression analyses were performed to evaluate the associations between greenness exposure and birth outcomes. We estimated the mediating effects of PM associated with greenness exposure on birth outcomes through causal mediation analyses. We also examined the potential multiplicative and additive interactions between greenness exposure and PM and their effects on birth outcomes. RESULTS: The first trimester NDVI exposure was associated with reduced risks for PTB, TLBW, and SGA, which had an adjusted OR (aOR) of 0.93 (95% CI: 0.89-0.97), 0.91 (95% CI: 0.83-0.99), and 0.95 (95% CI: 0.91-1.00), respectively, per 0.1 unit increase in multi-pollutant models. The causal mediation analysis showed that PM mediated approximately 5-19% of the association between first and third trimester greenness and PTB and mediated approximately 15-37% of the association between greenness and SGA. We identified multiplicative interactions in log scale between first trimester PM10 and NDVI exposure for SGA (aORinteraction = 0.92, p = 0.03) and HC (estimateinteraction = 1.47, p = 0.04). CONCLUSIONS: This study revealed beneficial associations between residential greenness and birth outcomes, including PTB, TLBW, and SGA. The associations were partly mediated by a reduction in exposure to PM air pollution. SUMMARY: The beneficial effects of greenness on PTB and SGA are partly mediated by a reduction in exposure to PM air pollution.