Prenatal Air Pollution and Birth Defects Risk in Tangshan, China

Data Sheet 1 presents a population-based study of 19,053 mother-offspring pairs from Tangshan, China, examining the association between prenatal exposure to six air pollutants and birth defects. The dataset, authored by Min Guo and last updated in April 2026, includes 540 identified cases of birth defects (28.34 per 1,000). It was created using data from a regional maternal and child health surveillance system and analyzed with multi-pollutant statistical models.

Use Cases

• Modeling the joint effect of mixed air pollutants (PM10, PM2.5, SO2, NO2, CO, O3) on birth defect risk based on quantile g-computation and BKMR results.
• Investigating pollutant interactions (e.g., PM10-SO2, NO2-SO2) and their contribution to birth defects as described in the analysis.
• Assessing subgroup differences in pollutant effects by residential area (rural/urban) and offspring sex based on the study's findings.
• Evaluating exposure-response relationships for air pollution mixtures during the periconceptional period (12 weeks before pregnancy to gestational week 13).

Strengths

• Includes a substantial population of 19,053 mother-offspring pairs.
• Analyzes exposure to six specific air pollutants (PM10, PM2.5, SO2, NO2, CO, O3) using advanced multi-pollutant models.
• Provides specific statistical results, including an odds ratio of 1.19 per quartile increase in the pollutant mixture and positive weights for individual pollutants.

Limitations

• Column-level documentation is absent; field semantics must be inferred after download.
• Row count for the underlying data is unknown, which may limit suitability assessment.
• Data is geographically limited to Tangshan, China, which may affect generalizability.

Provenance

Source

figshare, author Min Guo.

Collection Method

Data from a regional maternal and child health surveillance system, with air pollutant exposure assessed using inverse distance weighting interpolation.

Time Range

Covers the periconceptional period from 12 weeks before pregnancy to gestational week 13.

Freshness

Last updated 2026-04-13 05:44:07; freshness should be verified.

Geography

Tangshan, China.