Prenatal exposure to arsenic and neurobehavioral development of newborns in China

Abstract

TPS 731: Neurological effects in children, Exhibition Hall, Ground floor, August 26, 2019, 3:00 PM - 4:30 PM Background: The link between arsenic exposure and deficits in children’s neurodevelopment has been well documented, but it remains unclear that whether prenatal arsenic exposure can affect early neurobehavioral development in infancy. Methods: To assess the associations of in utero arsenic exposure with neurobehavioral outcomes in newborns, we conducted a cross-sectional study of 892 mother-infant pairs from 10 hospitals in Shanghai, China. The concentrations of arsenic were determined in cord blood samples. Neurobehavioral measures were administered at 3 days postpartum in full-term newborns using the neonatal behavioral neurological assessment (NBNA). Logistic regression models were used to estimate odds ratios for dichotomous NBNA outcomes. Results: After adjusting for potential confounders, a natural log unit (ln-unit) increase in cord blood arsenic was associated with 90% increased odds of low NBNA score (95% confidence interval [CI]: 1.62, 2.23). As for clusters, each ln-unit arsenic increase was associated with 47% increased odds of low score for behavior (95% CI: 1.31, 1.66) and 36% increased odds of low score for passive muscle tone (95% CI: 1.23, 1.51). Odds ratios comparing extreme tertiles were 8.62 (95% CI: 4.19, 17.8) for total scale, 3.69 (95% CI: 2.35, 5.82) for behavior, and 3.32 (95% CI: 2.21, 4.97) for passive tone (all p-trend < 0.001). Stratified analyses showed more evident associations in newborns of mothers ≥ 29 versus < 29 years of age. Conclusions: Our results provide evidence for an inverse association between low-level prenatal arsenic exposure and neonatal neurobehavioral performance, particularly among newborns born to older mothers. Further studies are warranted to confirm arsenic-related neurodevelopmental deficits in early life.