High ambient temperature may increase the risk of anemia in pregnancy: Identifying susceptible exposure windows

Anemia in pregnancy (AIP) is associated with multiple severe maternal and perinatal adverse outcomes. However, there is a lack of evidence on the association between environmental factors and AIP. Aim to explore the association between ambient temperature and the risk of AIP, and identify susceptible exposure windows, we conducted a matched case-control study from 2013 to 2016 in Xi'an, China, which included 710 women with AIP and 1420 women without AIP. The conditional logistic regression model was used to evaluate the association between ambient temperature and AIP at different gestational weeks and gestational months. The association between extreme temperature and AIP was evaluated using the distributed lag nonlinear model (DLNM). We conducted stratified analyses of age, parity, and season of conception, and estimated the interaction between ambient temperature and air pollutants on AIP. Ambient temperature was significantly positively associated with the risk of AIP, and the susceptible exposure windows were 2–25 gestational weeks and 1–6 gestational months, respectively. The strongest effect was observed in the week 8 and month 2, for each 1 °C increase in weekly and monthly mean temperature, the odds ratio (OR) for AIP was 1.038 (95 % confidence interval (CI): 1.022, 1.055) and 1.040 (95 % CI: 1.020, 1.060), respectively. Extreme heat may increase the risk of AIP. Stratified analyses showed that there was no apparent difference among different age, parity, and season of conception groups. No significant interaction effect of ambient temperature with air pollution on AIP was found. In summary, high ambient temperature may increase the risk of AIP, and the first and second trimesters may be susceptible exposure windows. Understanding the effect of temperature on pregnant women will be beneficial to reduce the occurrence of AIP.