ORIGINAL RESEARCH article
Front. Public Health
Sec. Environmental Health and Exposome
Volume 13 - 2025 | doi: 10.3389/fpubh.2025.1556340
Global, regional, and national burden of neonatal diseases attributable to particulate matter pollution from 1990 to 2021
Provisionally accepted
- 1GMU-GIBH Joint School of Life Sciences, The Guangdong-Hong Kong-Macao Joint Laboratory for Cell Fate Regulation and Diseases, Guangzhou Medical University, Guangzhou, China
- 2Maternal and Child Health Hospital of Guangxi Zhuang Autonomous Region, Nanning, Guangxi Zhuang Region, China
- 3Guangxi Medical University, Nanning, Guangxi Zhuang Region, China
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The impact of particulate matter pollution (PMP) on neonatal health has garnered growing public attention. However, the global burden of PMP-related neonatal diseases remains insufficiently characterized. This study aimed to evaluate the current burden and temporal trends of PMP-related neonatal diseases.We used data from the 2021 Global Burden of Disease Study (GBD) to estimate disability-adjusted life years (DALYs) of neonatal diseases attributed to PMP.Our analysis included DALY trends by age, gender, and sociodemographic index (SDI) from 1990 to 2021 at global, regional, and national levels. We employed health inequality analysis and frontier analysis to quantify the factors that contribute to the neonatal diseases burden attributed to PMP.In 2021, the global age-standardized DALYs of neonatal diseases attributed to PMP, household air pollution (HAP), and ambient particulate matter pollution (APMP) were 723.06/100,000 (95% UI: 610.39, 845.18), 518.10/100,000 (95% UI: 410.06, 641.68), and 204.81/100,000 (95% UI: 121.31, 311.25), respectively. From 1990 to 2021, PMP-and HAP-related neonatal disease burdens declined significantly, whereas APMP-related DALYs increased in low-middle SDI regions. Age-specific DALYs showed a gradual downward trend, and male DALYs were higher than female DALYs in all age groups. DALYs of neonatal diseases attributed to PMP, HAP, and APMP were negatively correlated with SDI. Frontier analysis indicated that urgent action was required to alleviate the burden of neonatal diseases attributed to PMP in countries such as Mali, South Sudan, the Central African Republic, Sierra Leone, and Nigeria.The burden of neonatal disease attributed to PMP remains a major health problem worldwide, especially in low SDI regions. This suggests that future air pollution-induced neonatal disease responses should emphasize health equity. Low SDI regions should be prioritized when allocating resources to address climate change.
Keywords: Neonatal disease, Particulate matter pollution, Epidemiology, Global Burden of Disease (GBD), Public Health
Received: 06 Jan 2025; Accepted: 26 May 2025.
Copyright: © 2025 Li, Liang, Song and Li. This is an open-access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License (CC BY). The use, distribution or reproduction in other forums is permitted, provided the original author(s) or licensor are credited and that the original publication in this journal is cited, in accordance with accepted academic practice. No use, distribution or reproduction is permitted which does not comply with these terms.
* Correspondence: Hui Li, GMU-GIBH Joint School of Life Sciences, The Guangdong-Hong Kong-Macao Joint Laboratory for Cell Fate Regulation and Diseases, Guangzhou Medical University, Guangzhou, China
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