Abstract
BackgroundEnvironmental lead exposure poses a risk to educational performance, especially among poor, urban children. Previous studies found low-level lead exposure was a risk factor for diminished academic abilities, however, this study is distinct because of the very large sample size and because it controlled for very low birth weight and early preterm birth–two factors closely associated with lower academic performance. In this study we examined the association between lead concentration in whole blood (B-Pb) of Chicago Public School (CPS) children and their performance on the 3rd grade Illinois Standard Achievement Tests (ISAT) reading and math scores.MethodsWe examined 58,650 children born in Chicago between 1994 and 1998 who were tested for blood lead concentration between birth and 2006 and enrolled in the 3rd grade at a CPS school between 2003 and 2006. We linked the Chicago birth registry, the Chicago Blood Lead Registry, and 3rd grade ISAT scores to examine associations between B-Pb and school performance.ResultsAfter adjusting for other predictors of school performance including poverty, race/ethnicity, gender, maternal education and very low birth weight or preterm-birth, we found that B-Pbs below 10 μg/dL were inversely associated with reading and math scores in 3rd grade children. For a 5 μg/dL increase in B-Pb, the risk of failing increased by 32% for reading (RR = 1.32, 95%CI = 1.26, 1.39) and math (RR = 1.32, 95%CI = 1.26, 1.39). The effect of lead on reading was non-linear with steeper failure rates at lower B-Pbs. We estimated that 13% of reading failure and 14.8% of math failure can be attributed to exposure to blood lead concentrations of 5 to 9 vs. 0 to 4 μg/dL in Chicago school children.ConclusionsEarly childhood lead exposure is associated with poorer achievement on standardized reading and math tests in the third grade, even at very low B-Pbs. Preventing lead exposure in early childhood is critical to improving school performance.
Highlights
Environmental lead exposure poses a risk to educational performance, especially among poor, urban children
We examined the effect of Blood lead concentration (B-Pb) on performance on the Illinois Standard Achievement Test (ISAT) of 47,168 children enrolled in the 3rd grade at a Chicago Public School between 2003 and 2006 by linking children’s B-Pbs, birth certificate records, and Illinois Standard Achievement Tests (ISAT) scores
Inclusion criteria and study design The study population is a cohort of children who were: born in the six-county area of metropolitan Chicago between 1994 and 1998; residents of Chicago during early childhood; had a B-Pb test reported to the Chicago Department of Public Health (CDPH) between 1996 and 2006; and were enrolled in a Chicago Public School (CPS) school with available ISAT scores between 2003 and 2006
Summary
Environmental lead exposure poses a risk to educational performance, especially among poor, urban children. In this study we examined the association between lead concentration in whole blood (B-Pb) of Chicago Public School (CPS) children and their performance on the 3rd grade Illinois Standard Achievement Tests (ISAT) reading and math scores. A study by Zahran et al [6], which matched children’s blood lead concentrations and standardized test performance in 117 metropolitan New Orleans elementary schools, showed that for each unit change in median B-Pb concentration, there was an increase of 3.8 (95% CI, 2.2–5.5) in the percentage of children in the Unsatisfactory category. Zhang et al [7] linked B-Pb surveillance data to Michigan Educational Assessment Program scores for children in grades 3, 5, and 8. The odds of scoring non proficient in mathematics, science and reading for children who had B-Pbs > 10 μg/dL were more than twice the odds for those whose B-Pbs were < 1 μg/dL [7]
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