Exposure to endocrine-disrupting chemicals during pregnancy and weight at 7 years of age: a multi-pollutant approach.

Abstract

BACKGROUND: Prenatal exposure to endocrine-disrupting chemicals (EDCs) may induce weight gain and obesity in children, but the obesogenic effects of mixtures have not been studied. OBJECTIVE: We evaluated the associations between pre- and perinatal biomarker concentrations of 27 EDCs and child weight status at 7 years of age. METHODS: In pregnant women enrolled in a Spanish birth cohort study between 2004 and 2006, we measured the concentrations of 10 phthalate metabolites, bisphenol A, cadmium, arsenic, and lead in two maternal pregnancy urine samples; 6 organochlorine compounds in maternal pregnancy serum; mercury in cord blood; and 6 polybrominated diphenyl ether congeners in colostrum. Among 470 children at 7 years, body mass index (BMI) z-scores were calculated, and overweight was defined as BMI > 85th percentile. We estimated associations with EDCs in single-pollutant models and applied principal-component analysis (PCA) on the 27 pollutant concentrations. RESULTS: In single-pollutant models, HCB (hexachlorobenzene), βHCH (β-hexachlorocyclohexane), and polychlorinated biphenyl (PCB) congeners 138 and 180 were associated with increased child BMI z-scores; and HCB, βHCH, PCB-138, and DDE (dichlorodiphenyldichloroethylene) with overweight risk. PCA generated four factors that accounted for 43.4% of the total variance. The organochlorine factor was positively associated with BMI z-scores and with overweight (adjusted RR, tertile 3 vs. 1: 2.59; 95% CI: 1.19, 5.63), and these associations were robust to adjustment for other EDCs. Exposure in the second tertile of the phthalate factor was inversely associated with overweight. CONCLUSIONS: Prenatal exposure to organochlorines was positively associated with overweight at age 7 years in our study population. Other EDCs exposures did not confound this association.This study was funded by grants from Instituto de Salud Carlos III (Red INMA G03/176, CB06/02/0041), Spanish Ministry of Health (FIS-PI12/01890, FIS-PI041436, FIS-PI081151), Generalitat de Catalunya (CIRIT 1999SGR 00241), and RecerCaixa (register number 2010ACUP00349). A full roster of the INMA Project Investigators can be found online (http://www.proyectoinma.org). The study was supported by a postdoctoral fellowship to K.A.-S. from the Environment and Health Fund (EHF, Israel). The authors declare they have no actual or potential competing financial interest