Increase in fertility following coal and oil power plant retirements in California.

ABSTRACT: BACKGROUND:Few studies have explored the relationship between air pollution and fertility. We used a natural experiment in California when coal and oil power plants retired to estimate associations with nearby fertility rates. METHODS:We used a difference-in-differences negative binomial model on the incident rate ratio scale to analyze the change in annual fertility rates among California mothers living within 0-5 km and 5-10 km of 8 retired power plants between 2001 and 2011. The difference-in-differences method isolates the portion of the pre- versus post-retirement contrast in the 0-5 km and 5-10 km bins, respectively, that is due to retirement rather than secular trends. We controlled for secular trends with mothers living 10-20 km away. Adjusted models included fixed effects for powe

SUBMITTER: Casey JA 

PROVIDER: S-EPMC5932773 | biostudies-literature | 2018 May

REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature