Associations of BFR mixtures with ASD risk and SRS scores.

Abstract

Objectives: To determine the association between a mixture of Brominated Flame Retardants (BFRs) and both Autism Spectrum Disorder (ASD) diagnoses and Social Responsiveness Scale (SRS) scores. Methods: We applied a novel Bayesian approach to estimate the association between BFRs (PBDEs 28, 47, 99, 100, and 153) and ASD diagnosis and SRS scores. This approach estimates a summed mixture effect and a percent contribution of each mixture component to that effect. Results: In adjusted models using EARLI data, the odds of ASD for a 1-unit increase in the weighted sum of PBDEs were 1.41 (95% highest posterior density 0.82, 2.50) times the odds of ASD for the unexposed and the change in z-score standardized SRS per 1 unit increase in the weighted sum of PBDEs is 0.15 (95% highest posterior density -0.08, 0.38) Conclusion: Our results suggest a relationship between PBDE exposures and both ASD diagnosis and increased SRS scores; components of the PBDE mixture were mostly similar in their contribution to this relationship. Our approach is more flexible than existing approaches and can be specified to allow multiple exposure groups based on a priori knowledge from epidemiology or toxicology.