Association between prenatal exposure to multiple environmental chemicals and birth weight

CAO Xiuli; WANG Jingyu; LI Yuanyuan; XU Shunqing; ZHOU Yuanzhong; LIU Hongxiu

doi:10.16462/j.cnki.zhjbkz.2025.02.002

Volume 29 Issue 2

Feb. 2025

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Article Navigation > CHINESE JOURNAL OF DISEASE CONTROL & PREVENTION > 2025 > 29(2): 132-138

CAO Xiuli, WANG Jingyu, LI Yuanyuan, XU Shunqing, ZHOU Yuanzhong, LIU Hongxiu. Association between prenatal exposure to multiple environmental chemicals and birth weight[J]. CHINESE JOURNAL OF DISEASE CONTROL & PREVENTION, 2025, 29(2): 132-138. doi: 10.16462/j.cnki.zhjbkz.2025.02.002

Citation:

CAO Xiuli, WANG Jingyu, LI Yuanyuan, XU Shunqing, ZHOU Yuanzhong, LIU Hongxiu. Association between prenatal exposure to multiple environmental chemicals and birth weight[J]. CHINESE JOURNAL OF DISEASE CONTROL & PREVENTION, 2025, 29(2): 132-138. doi: 10.16462/j.cnki.zhjbkz.2025.02.002

Citation:

CAO Xiuli, WANG Jingyu, LI Yuanyuan, XU Shunqing, ZHOU Yuanzhong, LIU Hongxiu. Association between prenatal exposure to multiple environmental chemicals and birth weight[J]. CHINESE JOURNAL OF DISEASE CONTROL & PREVENTION, 2025, 29(2): 132-138. doi: 10.16462/j.cnki.zhjbkz.2025.02.002

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Association between prenatal exposure to multiple environmental chemicals and birth weight

doi: 10.16462/j.cnki.zhjbkz.2025.02.002

1.
The Institute of Environmental Medicine, School of Public Health, Tongji Medical College, Huazhong University of Science and Technology, Wuhan 430030, China
2.
School of Public Health, Zunyi Medical University, Zunyi 563006, China

Funds:

National Natural Science Foundation of China 22006046

The Open Program of Guangxi Key Laboratory of Environmental Exposomics and Entire Lifecycle Heath 2023-GKLEH-02

The Science & Technology Program of Guizhou Province QKHPTRC-CXTD [2022] 014

Scientific Research Program of Guizhou Provincial Department of Education QJJ [2023] 019

More Information

Corresponding author: LIU Hongxiu, E-mail: lhx@hust.edu.cn
Received Date: 2024-03-26
Rev Recd Date: 2025-01-02

Available Online: 2025-03-08

Publish Date: 2025-02-10

Abstract

Abstract

Objective To investigate the association between maternal prenatal exposure to a chemical exposome consisting of metals, phenols, phthalates, hydroxybenzoates, benzotriazoles and benzothiazoles, and the birth weight of newborns. Methods A total of 829 mother-infant pairs who joined a birth cohort in Wuhan from 2014 to 2015 were selected as the study population. Pregnant women were guided to fill out baseline questionnaires, and their urine samples were collected repeatedly. The concentrations of 33 metals, 8 phenols, 8 phthalates, 3 hydroxybenzoates, 4 benzotriazoles, and 4 benzothiazoles metabolites in urine samples were measured. An exposome-wide association study (ExWAS) was applied to test the association of each exposure with birth weight. Subsequently, the elastic net (ENET) model was used to select significant variables from the ExWAS approach, and the selected variables were incorporated into the Bayesian kernel machine regression (BKMR) model to evaluate the effect of their mixture. Results The ExWAS results showed a negative correlation between bisphenol S (BPS), bisphenol F (BPF), aluminum (Al), gallium (Ga), and benzothiazole (BTH) with birth weight, and for each interquartile range (IQR) increase in the concentrations of these exposures, the differences in birth weight were -36.76 (95% CI: -66.79--6.73) g, -36.05 (95% CI: -67.59--4.51) g, -26.59 (95% CI: -52.81--0.37) g, -37.82 (95% CI: -68.60--7.04) g, and -47.89 (95% CI: -85.81--9.96) g, respectively. Besides, BPS, Ga, and BTH were selected by ENET model, then their mixture was significantly associated with reduced birth weight in BKMR model. Compared to the 50th percentile, increasing the concentration of the mixture to the 75th percentile resulted in a reduction in birth weight of 47.45 (95% CI: 19.21-75.69) g. Sex-stratified analysis revealed that BPS, Ga, and BTH only affected the birth weight of male infants. Conclusions Maternal exposure to BPS, Ga, and BTH during pregnancy is associated with a decrease in infant birth weight, particularly in male infants.
- Prenatal exposure,
- Birth weight,
- Exposome-wide association study,
- Bayesian kernel machine regression,
- Cohort

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References(19)

References

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