Abstract
Autism spectrum disorder (ASD) is a neurodevelopmental condition characterized by impaired social communication and repetitive or stereotypic behaviours. In utero exposure to environmental chemicals, such as polychlorinated biphenyls (PCBs), may play a role in the etiology of ASD. We examined the relation between plasma PCB concentrations measured during pregnancy and autistic behaviours in a subset of children aged 3–4 years old in the Maternal-Infant Research on Environmental Chemicals (MIREC) Study, a pregnancy and birth cohort of 546 mother-infant pairs from Canada (enrolled: 2008–2011). We quantified the concentrations of 6 PCB congeners that were detected in >40% of plasma samples collected during the 1st trimester. At age 3–4 years, caregivers completed the Social Responsiveness Scale-2 (SRS), a valid and reliable measure of children’s reciprocal social and repetitive behaviours and restricted interests. We examined SRS scores as both a continuous and binary outcome, and we calculated Bayesian predictive odds ratios for more autistic behaviours based on a latent variable model for SRS scores >60. We found no evidence of an association between plasma PCB concentrations and autistic behaviour. However, we found small and imprecise increases in the mean SRS score and odds of more autistic behaviour for the highest category of plasma PCB concentrations compared with the lowest category; for instance, an average increase of 1.4 (95%PCI: −0.4, 3.2) in the mean SRS (exposure contrast highest versus lowest PCB category) for PCB138 translated to an odds ratio of 1.8 (95%PCI: 1.0, 2.9). Our findings illustrate the importance of measuring associations between PCBs and autistic behaviour on both continuous and binary scales.
Highlights
Autism spectrum disorder (ASD) is a neurodevelopmental condition affecting 1–2% of children that is characterized by impaired social communication and repetitive or stereotypic behaviours that manifest during early childhood [1]
Further study is needed to compare ORs based on the Social Responsiveness Scale-2 (SRS) with ORs based on ASD diagnosis. This is one of only a few studies to examine in utero polychlorinated biphenyls (PCBs) exposures and autistic behaviour in a prospective cohort of pregnant women
We found no association between plasma PCB
Summary
Autism spectrum disorder (ASD) is a neurodevelopmental condition affecting 1–2% of children that is characterized by impaired social communication and repetitive or stereotypic behaviours that manifest during early childhood [1]. Public Health 2019, 16, 457; doi:10.3390/ijerph16030457 www.mdpi.com/journal/ijerph
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