Prenatal and Postnatal Exposure to Phthalate and Neurocognitive Development in Children: a 12-Year Follow-Up of Taiwan Maternal and Infant Cohort Study

Abstract

Prenatal and Postnatal Exposure to Phthalate and Neurocognitive Development in Children: a 12-Year Follow-Up of Taiwan Maternal and Infant Cohort StudyAbstract Number:1729 Han-Bin Huang, Hsin-Yi Chen, Pen-Hua Su, Chien-Wen Sun, Chien-Jen Wang, Hsiao-Yen Chen, and Shu-Li Wang* Han-Bin Huang School of Public Health, National Defense Medical Center, Taiwan, E-mail Address: [email protected] Search for more papers by this author , Hsin-Yi Chen Department of Special Education, National Taiwan Normal University, Taiwan Search for more papers by this author , Pen-Hua Su Department of Pediatrics, Chung Shan Medical University Hospital, Taiwan Search for more papers by this author , Chien-Wen Sun Division of Environmental Health and Occupational Medicine, National Health Research Institutes, Taiwan Search for more papers by this author , Chien-Jen Wang Division of Environmental Health and Occupational Medicine, National Health Research Institutes, Taiwan Search for more papers by this author , Hsiao-Yen Chen Division of Environmental Health and Occupational Medicine, National Health Research Institutes, Taiwan Search for more papers by this author , and Shu-Li Wang* Division of Environmental Health and Occupational Medicine, National Health Research Institutes, Taiwan, E-mail Address: [email protected] Search for more papers by this author AbstractBackground: Few studies have examined the association between environmental phthalate exposure and children’s neurocognitive development, especially in birth cohort follow-up studies.Objectives: We carried out a longitudinal study to explore the association of phthalate exposure with neurocognitive development in children from the general population.Methods: In 2001-2002, we have recruited 430 pregnant women in the third-trimester in Taichung, Taiwan. A total of 110, 79, 76 and 73children were followed up at 2, 5, 8 and 11 years, respectively. We evaluated children’s neurocognitive development at the four time points using Bayley and Wechsler tests for the assessment of neurocognition and intellectual quotient (IQ), respectively. Maternal and children’s urinary samples were analyzed for seven metabolite concentrations of widely used phthalate esters, including monomethyl phthalate (MMP), monoethyl phthalate (MEP), mono-benzyl phthalate (MnBP), mono-n-butyl phthalate (MBzP), three metabolites of di(2-ethylhexyl) phthalate (DEHP), mono-2-ethylhexyl phthalate (MEHP), mono(2-ethyl-5-hydroxyhexyl) phthalate (MEHHP) and mono(2-ethyl-5-oxohexyl) phthalate (MEOHP). After adjusting for potential confounders, we constructed the linear mixed model to examine the relations between phthalate metabolite concentrations and Bayley /IQ scores.Results: We found significant inverse associations between children’s levels of urinary MEOHP and SDEHP and IQ scores (beta= -1.818; p=0.004 for MEOHP; beta= -1.575; p=0.035 for SDEHP) after controlling for maternal phthalate exposure and other covariates. A marginally significant negative relationship between the children’s urinary MnBP and IQ scores (beta= -1.783; p=0.056) was observed. We did not observe notable associations between maternal phthalate exposure and children’s IQ scores.Conclusions: The phthalate esters exposure might associate with decreased neurocognitive development in young children.