Perinatal & Pediatric
Paternal and Maternal Exposures to Per- And Polyfluoroalkyl Substances (PFAS) and Birth Outcomes: A Multi-Country Cohort Study Pengfei Guo* Pengfei Guo Jiajun Luo Onyebuchi A Arah Gunnar Toft Zeyan Liew
Background Maternal prenatal exposures to per- and polyfluoroalkyl substances (PFAS) have been linked to adverse birth outcomes. However, few investigations have considered paternal PFAS exposure. We estimated the parent-specific associations of prenatal PFAS exposures with adverse birth outcomes.
Methods This study included 498 couples from the INUENDO cohort recruited at antenatal care visits in Greenland, Poland, and Ukraine during 2002-2004. We measured five major types of PFAS in matched parental serum during pregnancy (median week of gestation: 30). We analyzed three birth outcomes ascertained from medical records, including gestational age, birth weight, and birth length. We used weighted least square linear regression to evaluate parent-specific associations of serum-PFAS with the birth outcomes, adjusting for parental co-exposures and covariates. We also used quantile g-computation for mixture modeling of the birth outcomes of paternal and/or maternal exposures to multiple PFAS.
Results No associations were found between maternal and paternal PFAS exposures and gestational age. However, a higher level of maternal serum perfluorooctanoate (PFOA) was linked to a tendency towards lower birth weight and smaller birth length, after adjusting for paternal PFOA. Paternal exposure to four PFAS (except PFOA) was associated with lower birth weight or birth length, but the estimated effect sizes were small. The mixture analyses did not reveal apparent joint exposure effects.
Discussion Although we did not find conclusive evidence, some imprecise and parent-specific associations were noted for offspring lower birth weight or shorter birth length in relation to higher maternal serum PFOA or paternal serum PFOS, PFNA, PFDA, and PFHxS. Further investigations are needed to better understand parent- and sex-specific effects of prenatal PFAS exposures on offspring growth and development.