Environment/Climate Change
Impact of arsenic exposure on glucose metabolism phenotypes among children in rural Bangladesh Margaret Quaid* Margaret Quaid Syed Emdadul Haque Tariqul Islam Mohammad Hasan Shahriar Golam Sarwar Alauddin Ahmed Farzana Jasmine Muhammad G Kibriya Habibul Ahsan Maria Argos
Children residing in rural Bangladesh have known exposure to arsenic through diet and water consumption. Arsenic exposure is associated with several adverse health outcomes, including cardiovascular disease, cancer, and metabolic disorders. To further evaluate the relationship between arsenic exposure and glucose metabolism phenotypes in children, we investigated the cross-sectional relationship between arsenic exposure, assessed in toenail clippings and spot urine samples, with glucose metabolism biomarkers (fasting glucose, fasting insulin, ratio of fasting glucose to fasting insulin, and various homeostasis model assessment metrics) among 500 children, aged 5-7 years, participating in the Bangladesh Environmental Research in Children’s Health (BiRCH) cohort. We derived effect estimates and 95% confidence intervals from linear regression models evaluating associations with arsenic exposure tertiles, adjusted for potential confounding by sex, age, father’s smoking status, and body mass index. Urinary creatinine was additionally included in the urinary arsenic exposure models. A positive association of urinary arsenic exposure was observed with fasting glucose (tertile 2 vs. 1 β=4.16 pg/mL; 95% CI: 0.81, 7.51 and tertile 3 vs. 1 β=1.47; 95% CI: -2.13, 5.07). We additionally observed an inverse association of urinary arsenic with fasting insulin (tertile 2 vs. 1 β=1.01; 95% CI: -32.4, 34.4 and tertile 3 vs. 1 β=-16.1, 95% CI: -51.8, 19.6). Findings with toenail arsenic exposure were similar. In conclusion, arsenic exposure appears to be associated with glucose metabolism in early life among healthy children, shedding light on the potential impact of early-life arsenic exposure on diabetes across the lifecourse. These results suggest the need to evaluate longitudinal trajectories and clinical outcomes to advance our understanding of the observed associations.