Prenatal and postnatal polybrominated diphenyl ether (PBDE) exposure and measures of inattention and impulsivity in children

Abstract

Exposure to polybrominated diphenyl ethers (PBDEs) during fetal development may be associated with deficits in attention and impulse control. However, studies examining postnatal PBDE exposures and inattention and impulsivity have been inconsistent. Using data from 214 children in the Health Outcomes and Measures of the Environment (HOME) Study, a prospective pregnancy and birth cohort with enrollment from 2003–2006 in the Greater Cincinnati Area, we investigated the relationship of both prenatal and postnatal PBDE exposures with attention and impulse control. Serum PBDEs were measured at 16±3 weeks of gestation and during childhood at 1, 2, 3, 5, and 8 years. We assessed children’s attention and impulse control using the Conners’ Continuous Performance Test-Second Edition (CPT-II) at 8 years. We used multiple informant models to estimate associations of repeated PBDE measures with inattention and impulsivity. There was a pattern of associations between PBDEs and poorer performance on CPT-II measures of attention. For BDE-153, adverse associations extended to exposures at preschool and kindergarten ages; ten-fold increases in exposure were associated with higher omission errors (BDE-153 at 3 years: β=4.0 [95% CI: −2.4, 10.4]; at 5 years: β=4.6 [95% CI: −2.8, 12.0]; at 8 years: β=4.1 [95% CI: −3.4, 11.5]). Longer hit reaction times, indicated by the exponential part of the hit reaction curve, were also observed with 10-fold increases in BDE-153 during the prenatal period and throughout childhood (Prenatal: β=15.0 milliseconds (ms) [95% CI: −15.8, 45.8]; 5 years: β=20.6 ms [95% CI: −20.8, 61.9]; 8 years: β=28.6 ms [95% CI: −12.1, 69.4]). Significant impairment in discriminability, as indicated by detectability (d′), between targets and non-targets was also noted with 5 and 8-year PBDE concentrations. Associations between PBDEs and inattention significantly differed by child sex, with males performing more poorly than females with regard to omission errors and measures of reaction times. Collectively, these results do not strongly support that PBDEs are associated with poorer impulse and attention control among 8 year old children. However, there may be a possible relationship between prenatal and concurrent PBDEs and inattention, which requires additional research.

Effects of Polybrominated Diphenyl Ethers on Child Cognitive, Behavioral, and Motor Development

“…All analyses were derived from longitudinal birth cohorts—three from Europe (France, Spain, and the Netherlands [ 23 , 24 , 25 ]); three from Asia (China, Taiwan, and Korea [ 26 , 27 , 28 ]); and three from North America. The North American birth cohorts were: CHAMACOS in Salinas Valley, California [ 29 , 30 ], HOME in Cincinnati, Ohio [ 31 , 32 , 33 , 34 , 35 , 36 ], and World Trade Center in New York, New York [ 37 , 38 ]. A summary of the studies can be found in Table 1 .…”

“…The year of exposure measurement varied from 1997 in INMA [ 24 ] to 2012 in Laizhou Wan [ 26 ]. Six of the studies (in the WTC, CHAMACOS, INMA, and COMPARE cohorts) measured exposure prior to 2004 [ 23 , 24 , 29 , 30 , 37 , 38 ], the year when penta- and octa-BDEs were phased out or banned in their respective locations, and seven studies (in the HOME and PELAGIE cohorts) measured exposure between 2002 and 2006 and included the year of congener removal in the enrollment window [ 31 , 32 , 33 , 34 , 35 , 36 ]. The studies in Asia were conducted in 2009 [ 27 ], 2011–2012 [ 28 ], and 2012 [ 26 ], but no regulation currently exists for PBDE exposure in either China or Korea [ 39 ], and Taiwanese regulation did not take effect until 2016.…”

“…Dyads were followed from birth through between one and twelve years of age. Results were reported in terms of a shift in the population distribution of outcome scores, using estimated betas from linear regression based on one or multiple measures of exposure and outcome in HOME, PELAGIE, CHAMACOS, WTC, CHECK, and the Laizhou Wan cohorts [ 25 , 26 , 28 , 29 , 30 , 31 , 32 , 33 , 34 , 35 , 36 , 38 ], and in terms of group odds or risk of outcomes, using odds ratios in HOME, CHAMACOS, and the Taiwanese cohort [ 27 , 29 , 31 ], risk ratios in INMA [ 24 ], and incidence rate ratios in WTC [ 37 ]. One study reported correlations between exposure and outcomes [ 23 ].…”

Polybrominated diphenyl ethers (PBDEs) and hydroxylated PBDE metabolites (OH-PBDEs) in maternal and fetal tissues, and associations with fetal cytochrome P450 gene expression

“…These studies report that developmental exposure to PBDEs is associated with mental and physical development (Herbstman et al 2010), Full-Scale Intelligence Quotient, reading skills and externalizing behaviors (Vuong et al 2017c; Zhang et al 2017), executive function (Vuong et al 2017b) and other neurobehaviors (Lam et al 2017). Some of these reports focus on prenatal exposure by measuring PBDEs in maternal and/or cord blood, while others focus on post-natal exposures by measuring PBDE exposures in children’s blood (e.g., (Vuong et al 2017a)).…”

Statistical Approaches for Investigating Periods of Susceptibility in Children’s Environmental Health Research

“…In the Health Outcomes and Measures of the Environment (HOME) Study, we have applied multiple informant methods to identify susceptible periods to several classes of environmental chemicals in studies of child neurobehavior and thyroid hormone levels (20)(21)(22)(23)(24)(25)(26)(27)(28)(29). Notably, we found that urinary triclosan concentrations at the time of delivery, but not during pregnancy or childhood, were inversely associated with child intelligence quotient at age 8 years (29).…”