Abstract

Introduction: Air pollution exposure has been associated with general negative effects on the nervous system and, consequently, on children’s neurodevelopment. This review aims to assess the main damages of prenatal air pollution exposure on the offspring’s neurodevelopment. Methods: A systematic review was conducted using PubMed/Medline, Cochrane, Ovid, and Scopus. The studies from the last ten years were assessed in compliance with PRISMA 2020 Guidelines and evaluated regarding quality. Results: From an initial 675 references, 24 observational studies encompassing 115,228 children aged 0 to 10 years were deemed eligible. On average, the women in the studies were around 30 years old at delivery. Various exposure assessment methods, pollutants, and neurodevelopmental outcome scales were utilized. All the studies included found an association between air pollutant exposure and neurodevelopment in different magnitudes. All 24 studies included in our review were observational and, therefore, assessed using the Newcastle-Ottawa Scale (NOS). Of them, 19 were considered good quality, 1 was fair quality, and 4 were poor quality. Conclusion: This comprehensive review presents evidence suggesting that prenatal exposure to air pollution has a harmful impact on cognitive and neurological development in offspring. However, future studies are needed to corroborate these results.