Air pollution and pregnancy
Research type
Research Study
Full title
The effects of air pollution on pregnancy and adverse birth outcomes
IRAS ID
331247
Contact name
Tina Chowdhury
Contact email
Sponsor organisation
Queen Mary University of London
Clinicaltrials.gov Identifier
24/EE/0047, Air pollution and pregnancy
Duration of Study in the UK
5 years, 0 months, 0 days
Research summary
We are an inter-disciplinary team of UK scientists with expertise in obstetrics, women’s and child health, epidemiology, climate science, inflammation, computational modelling, machine learning and artificial intelligence. Together we have a long history with existing strengths underlying preterm birth research that crosses multiple disciplines and an excellent track record of publications and awards leading research in preterm birth.
We aim to develop and validate a deep learning model to predict the risk of preterm birth and other adverse pregnancy outcomes using data from EPIC electronic health records at University College London Hospital for a cohort of 18000 patients. We will obtain corresponding data on exposure to ambient pollution using non-identifiers for postcode (area) and date of delivery (month), in collaboration with the MRC Centre for Environment and Health at Imperial College London. The model will review the temporal sequence of events within a patient’s medical history and current pregnancy, identifying significant interactions and will predict the risk of preterm birth. It will also determine the threshold and gestation at which pollution exposure has the greatest impact.
REC name
East of England - Cambridge South Research Ethics Committee
REC reference
24/EE/0047
Date of REC Opinion
21 Feb 2024
REC opinion
Favourable Opinion