Repeated Measurements of Paraben Exposure during Pregnancy in Relation to Fetal and Early Childhood Growth

Chuansha Wu, Wei Xia, Yuanyuan Li, Jiufeng Li, Bin Zhang, Tongzhang Zheng, Aifen Zhou, Hongzhi Zhao, Wenqian Huo, Jie Hu, Minmin Jiang, Chen Hu, Jiaqiang Liao, Xi Chen, Bing Xu, Shi Lu, Zongwei Cai*, Shunqing Xu*

*Corresponding author for this work

Research output: Contribution to journalJournal articlepeer-review

37 Citations (Scopus)

Abstract

Parabens are potential endocrine disruptors with short half-lives in the human body. To date, few epidemiological studies regarding repeated paraben measurements during pregnancy associated with fetal and childhood growth have been conducted. Within a Chinese prenatal cohort, 850 mother-infant pairs from whom a complete set of maternal urine samples were acquired during three trimesters were included, and the levels of five parabens were measured. We assessed the associations of both average and trimester-specific urinary paraben levels with weight and height z-scores at birth, 6 months, 1, and 2 years of age. In all infants, each doubling increase in average ethyl paraben (EtP) was associated with -2.82% (95% CI: -5.11%, -0.53%) decrease in weight z-score at birth, whereas no significant age-specific associations were identified. After stratifying by sex, we further observed age-specific association of average EtP with -3.96% (95% CI: -7.03%, -0.89%) and -3.38% (95% CI: 6.72%, -0.03%) reduction in weight z-scores at 1 and 2 years in males, respectively. Third-trimester EtP was negatively associated with weight z-scores at birth, 1 and 2 years in males. Our results suggested negative associations between prenatal paraben exposure and fetal and childhood growth, and the third trimester may be the window of susceptibility.

Original languageEnglish
Pages (from-to)422-433
Number of pages12
JournalEnvironmental Science and Technology
Volume53
Issue number1
Early online date14 Nov 2018
DOIs
Publication statusPublished - 2 Jan 2019

Scopus Subject Areas

  • General Chemistry
  • Environmental Chemistry

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