Burden of Child Anemia Attributable to Fine Particulate Matters Brought by Sand Dusts in Low- and Middle-Income...

Addressing environmental factors has recently been recommended to curb the growing trend of anemia in low- and middle-income countries (LMICs). Fine particulate matter (PM_2.5) generated by dust storms were concentrated in place with a high prevalence of anemia. In a multicounty, multicenter study, we analyzed the association between anemia and life-course averaged exposure to dust PM_2.5 among children aged <5 years based on 0.65 million records from 47 LMICs. In the fully adjusted mixed effects model, each 10 μg/m³ increase in life-course averaged exposure to dust PM_2.5 was associated with a 9.3% increase in the odds of anemia. The estimated exposure-response association was nonlinear, with a greater effect of dust PM_2.5 exposure seen at low concentrations. Applying this association, we found that, in 2017, among all children aged <5 years in the 125 LMICs, dust PM_2.5 contributed to 37.98 million cases of anemia. Results indicated that dust PM_2.5 contributed a heavier burden than all of the well-identified risk factors did, except for iron deficiency. Our study revealed that long-term exposure to dust PM_2.5 can be a novel risk factor, pronouncedly contributed to the burden of child anemia in LMICs, affected by land degradations or arid climate.