Peer-reviewed article
Prenatal exposure to residential greenness and artificial light at night and neurodevelopmental outcomes in children aged 4-12 years: A retrospective cohort study in China.
Chen J, Wang D, Fu J, Gong R, Chen Q et al. ·
Summary
Written by AI, not yet AICS's view · claude-haiku-4-5-20251001This study examined how prenatal exposure to green spaces and artificial light at night affected neurodevelopment in 814 Chinese children aged 4-12 years. Children prenatally exposed to more greenness showed better cognitive and motor skills, particularly in urban areas. Prenatal exposure to artificial light at night was linked to weaker motor performance, increased autism-related traits, and hyperactivity, with effects varying by location type and pregnancy timing.
Key points
- Higher prenatal greenness was associated with better cognitive performance (FSIQ increase of 3.95 points) and motor coordination (increase of 3.60 points) among urban children
- Prenatal artificial light at night exposure was linked to poorer motor performance and 3.7 times higher odds of autism-related traits in urban children
- Benefits of greenness plateaued beyond a 2-km buffer from residential address
- Greenness effects on working memory were strongest in first and second trimesters; artificial light effects on motor outcomes were strongest in third trimester
- Associations were stronger in urban and suburban areas than in non-urban settings
Limitations
The study is observational and retrospective, so causality cannot be established. Greenness and light exposure were estimated from satellite data and address-level measurements rather than direct individual measurement, which may introduce measurement error.
Abstract
Background Neurodevelopmental outcomes may be shaped by modifiable residential environmental exposures during pregnancy; however, in rapidly urbanizing contexts, evidence on prenatal greenness and artificial light at night (ALAN) across multiple neurodevelopmental outcomes, including critical exposure windows and spatial characteristics, remains limited. Methods We analyzed 814 children aged 4-12 years from an ongoing cohort in southern China. Prenatal greenness was assessed across multiple spatial buffers, while ALAN was estimated at the address level. Multivariable regression models were used to examine associations with cognitive, motor, behavioral, learning, and ASD-related outcomes, stratified by urbanicity, with additional gestational-window analyses and interpretable machine-learning approaches. Results Among urban children, higher prenatal greenness was associated with better cognitive performance (FSIQ: β = 3.95, 95% CI: 0.75-7.16) and motor coordination (β = 3.60, 95% CI: 1.27-5.93), with weaker or null associations in non-urban areas and benefits plateauing beyond a 2-km buffer. Prenatal ALAN exposure was associated with poorer motor performance (β = -1.94, 95% CI: -3.33 to -0.55) and increased odds of ASD-related traits (OR = 3.69, 95% CI: 1.50-9.08) among urban children, and with hyperactivity in suburban children. Time-window analyses indicated outcome-specific patterns: greenness was associated with working memory in the first and second trimesters, and ALAN was most strongly associated with motor outcomes in the third trimester and with behavioral outcomes cumulatively. Conclusions Prenatal greenness and ALAN were associated with child neurodevelopment, suggesting benefits of urban greening and potential harms of nighttime illumination, with associations more evident in urban and suburban settings across multiple neurodevelopmental outcomes.
Findings the Hub has extracted
Each claim below is labelled by its type of design and links back to this report.
- Intervention
- Residential exposure to greenness and artificial light at night during pregnancy
- Population
- 814 children aged 4-12 years from a cohort in southern China, stratified by urbanicity
Key finding
Higher prenatal greenness associated with FSIQ increase of 3.95 points (95% CI: 0.75-7.16) in urban children