LATEBREAKER
Environment/Climate Change
Prenatal exposure to mixtures of endocrine-disrupting chemicals in association with obesity in childhood and adolescence Nuria Güil-Oumrait* Nuria Güil-Oumrait Vishal Midya Augusto Anguita-Ruiz Léa Maitre Mariona Bustamante Jose Urquiza Cathrine Thomsen Line Småstuen Haug Hector C. Keun Barbara Heude John Wright Rosemary McEachan Marina Vafeiadi Regina Grazuleviciene Rémy Slama Leda Chatzi Martine Vrijheid Damaskini Valvi
Objective: Prenatal exposure to endocrine-disrupting chemicals (EDCs) may contribute to childhood obesity, but only a few studies have tracked these associations into adolescence and analyzed EDCs as mixtures. We aimed to investigate the associations between prenatal exposure to EDC mixtures and obesity in childhood and adolescence.
Material and methods: We examined 1301 mother-child pairs from the Human Early Life Exposome (HELIX) project, involving birth cohort studies across 6 European countries. We analyzed 9 metals, 3 organochlorine pesticides, 5 polychlorinated biphenyls, 2 polybrominated diphenyl ethers, 5 perfluoroalkyl substances, 10 phthalate metabolites, 3 phenols, 4 parabens, and 4 organophosphate pesticide metabolites measured in urine and/or blood collected in pregnancy. BMI z-scores were calculated in childhood (6-12 years; N=1301) and adolescence (13-18 years; N=607), and overweight (including obesity) was defined using the WHO growth reference. We used penalized multi-group Bayesian Weighted Quantile Sum Regression (BWQSR) to assess the EDC mixture associations with overweight in childhood and adolescence, adjusting for confounders.
Results: The prevalence of overweight was 28.9% in childhood and 30.0% in adolescence. Adjusted multi-group BWQSR indicated that, in both childhood and adolescence periods, higher exposures to the metal mixture (OR [95%CrI] per quartile mixture increase = 1.47 [1.10, 1.98] and (1.10 [0.66, 1.79], respectively), and the organochlorine pesticide mixture (OR [95%CrI] = 1.48 [1.23, 1.79] and 1.46 [1.11, 1.97], respectively) were associated with higher odds for overweight. The PCB mixture was associated with lower odds of being overweight (OR [95%CrI] = 0.80 [0.66, 0.95] in childhood and 0.66 [0.50, 0.86] in adolescence).
Conclusion: Findings suggest that prenatal exposure to mixtures of metals and organochlorine pesticides is associated with higher odds of being overweight in childhood and through adolescence. Future analyses will explore chemical-by-chemical interactions within EDC mixtures in association with overweight, and potential underlying mechanisms by studying children’s proteins and metabolomics profiles.