Prenatal Phthalate Exposures and Neurobehavioral Development Scores in Boys and Girls at 6–10 Years of Age

Abstract

Background: There is concern over potential neurobehavioral effects of prenatal phthalate exposures, but available data are inconsistent.Objectives: We examined associations between prenatal urinary concentrations of phthalate metabolites and neurobehavioral scores among children.Methods: We measured phthalate metabolite concentrations in urine samples from 153 pregnant participants in the Study for Future Families, a multicenter cohort study. Mothers completed the Child Behavior Checklist when the children were 6–10 years of age. We estimated overall and sex-specific associations between phthalate concentrations and behavior using adjusted multiple regression interaction models.Results: In boys, concentrations of monoisobutyl phthalate were associated with higher scores for inattention (β = 0.27; 95% CI: 0.04, 0.50), rule-breaking behavior (β = 0.20; 95% CI: 0.01, 0.38), aggression (β = 0.34; 95% CI: 0.09, 0.59), and conduct problems (β = 0.39; 95% CI: 0.20, 0.58), whereas the molar sum of di(2-ethylhexyl) phthalate metabolites was associated with higher scores for somatic problems (β = 0.15; 95% CI: 0.03, 0.28). Higher monobenzyl phthalate concentrations were associated with higher scores for oppositional behavior (β = 0.16; 95% CI: 0.01, 0.32) and conduct problems (β = 0.21; 95% CI: 0.06, 0.37) in boys, but with reduced anxiety scores in girls (β = –0.20; 95% CI: –0.39, –0.01). In general, the associations reported above were close to the null among girls. Model coefficients represent the difference in the square root–transformed outcome score associated with a 1-unit increase in log-transformed metabolites.Conclusions: Our results suggest associations between exposure to certain phthalates in late pregnancy and behavioral problems in boys. Given the few studies on this topic and methodological and population differences among studies, additional research is warranted.Citation: Kobrosly RW, Evans S, Miodovnik A, Barrett ES, Thurston SW, Calafat AM, Swan SH. 2014. Prenatal phthalate exposures and neurobehavioral development scores in boys and girls at 6–10 years of age. Environ Health Perspect 122:521–528; http://dx.doi.org/10.1289/ehp.1307063

Prenatal exposure to phthalates and neuropsychological development during childhood

“…d Adjusted for: age of the child at the time of outcome assessment, sex, maternal education, maternal smoking during pregnancy, birth season, breastfeeding, country origin of the mother, number of siblings, maternal age. Kobrosly et al, 2014;Lien et al, 2015) (Table 1). In the present study the results obtained at the age of 4 and 7 years did not show evidence of an adverse effect of prenatal exposure to phthalates for any of the different outcomes assessed.…”

Perinatal exposure to endocrine disruptors: sex, timing and behavioral endpoints

“…Gestational exposure to BPA increased play behaviors and social investigation in juvenile mice without impairing social recognition [29]; this effect was transgenerationally transmitted (without further treatments) up to the third generation of mice (F3), which also showed decreased social recognition, suggesting an epigenetic effect of BPA exposure via the germ line [17,18]. Human epidemiological studies report sex-dependent associations between gestational BPA and phtalates with aggressive behaviors in children and adolescents [20,22,30,31]. …”

Paternal and maternal preconception urinary phthalate metabolite concentrations and child behavior

“…Experimental animal studies have shown that prenatal DEHP and di-n-butyl phthalate can lead to impaired spatial learning and memory, and decreased grooming behavior (Hoshi and Ohtsuka, 2009; Tanaka, 2002; Li et al, 2009). Epidemiological studies report that urinary concentrations of low molecular weight phthalate metabolites, such as mono-n-butyl phthalate (MnBP) and monoisobutyl phthalate (MiBP), measured during the 2nd and 3rd trimesters of pregnancy were associated with neonatal behavior and reflexes (Yolton et al, 2011; Engel et al, 2009), aggression, rule breaking, and conduct problems (Engel et al, 2010; Whyatt et al, 2012; Kobrosly et al, 2014; Lien et al, 2015), autistic traits (Miodovnik et al, 2011), lower mental and psychomotor development (Whyatt et al, 2012; Balogh et al, 2011), emotional problems (Whyatt et al, 2012) and reduced IQ (Factor-Litvak et al, 2014); whereas others have not (Braun et al, 2014; Huang et al, 2015; Gascon et al, 2015). …”