Gestational Exposure to Endocrine-Disrupting Chemicals and Reciprocal Social, Repetitive, and Stereotypic Behaviors in 4- and 5-Year-Old Children: The HOME Study
Background: Endocrine-disrupting chemicals (EDCs) may be involved in the etiology of autism spectrum disorders, but identifying relevant chemicals within mixtures of EDCs is difficult.
Objective: Our goal was to identify gestational EDC exposures associated with autistic behaviors.
Methods: We measured the concentrations of 8 phthalate metabolites, bisphenol A, 25 polychlorinated biphenyls (PCBs), 6 organochlorine pesticides, 8 brominated flame retardants, and 4 perfluoroalkyl substances in blood or urine samples from 175 pregnant women in the HOME (Health Outcomes and Measures of the Environment) Study (Cincinnati, OH). When children were 4 and 5 years old, mothers completed the Social Responsiveness Scale (SRS), a measure of autistic behaviors. We examined confounder-adjusted associations between 52 EDCs and SRS scores using a two-stage hierarchical analysis to account for repeated measures and confounding by correlated EDCs.
Results: Most of the EDCs were associated with negligible absolute differences in SRS scores (≤ 1.5). Each 2-SD increase in serum concentrations of polybrominated diphenyl ether-28 (PBDE-28) (β = 2.5; 95% CI: –0.6, 5.6) or trans-nonachlor (β = 4.1; 95% CI: 0.8–7.3) was associated with more autistic behaviors. In contrast, fewer autistic behaviors were observed among children born to women with detectable versus nondetectable concentrations of PCB-178 (β = –3.0; 95% CI: –6.3, 0.2), β-hexachlorocyclohexane (β = –3.3; 95% CI: –6.1, –0.5), or PBDE-85 (β = –3.2; 95% CI: –5.9, –0.5). Increasing perfluorooctanoate (PFOA) concentrations were also associated with fewer autistic behaviors (β = –2.0; 95% CI: –4.4, 0.4).
Conclusions: Some EDCs were associated with autistic behaviors in this cohort, but our modest sample size precludes us from dismissing chemicals with null associations. PFOA, β-hexachlorocyclohexane, PCB-178, PBDE-28, PBDE-85, and trans-nonachlor deserve additional scrutiny as factors that may be associated with childhood autistic behaviors.
1Department of Epidemiology, Brown University, Providence, Rhode Island, USA; 2Zilber School of Public Health, University of Wisconsin-Milwaukee, Milwaukee, Wisconsin, USA; 3Department of Environmental Health, Harvard School of Public Health, Boston, Massaschusetts, USA; 4Cincinnati Children’s Hospital Medical Center, Department of Pediatrics, Cincinnati, Ohio, USA; 5Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, National Center for Environmental Health, Division of Laboratory Sciences, Atlanta, Georgia, USA; 6Faculty of Health and Sciences, Simon Fraser University, Burnaby, British Columbia, Canada; 7Child and Family Research Institute, BC Children’s and Women’s Hospital, Vancouver, British Columbia, Canada; 8Division of Epidemiology and Biostatistics, Department of Environmental Health, University of Cincinnati, Cincinnati, Ohio, USA
Recommended Citation:
Joseph M. Braun,1 Amy E. Kalkbrenner,2 Allan C. Just,et al. Gestational Exposure to Endocrine-Disrupting Chemicals and Reciprocal Social, Repetitive, and Stereotypic Behaviors in 4- and 5-Year-Old Children: The HOME Study[J]. Environmental Health Perspectives,2014-01-01,Volume 122(Issue 5):513