The urban exposome (built environment, air pollution, road traffic noise, meteorological, natural space and road traffic) affects health outcomes. For instance, associations between increasing green space exposure and increased birth weight and decreased term low birth weight in 32,000 mother-child pairs have been previously reported (Nieuwenhuijsen et al. 2019).
Here we aim to investigate the epigenetic mechanisms that might mediate this association. We will evaluate the relationship between exposure to green spaces during pregnancy and offspring cord blood DNA methylation at over 450,000 methylation sites (CpG sites) across the genome. This project will contribute epigenome-wide association study summary results to a meta-analysis as part of an ongoing large consortium.