TY - JOUR
T1 - Very low maternal lead level in pregnancy and birth outcomes in an eastern Massachusetts population
AU - Perkins, Meghan
AU - Wright, Robert O.
AU - Amarasiriwardena, Chitra J.
AU - Jayawardene, Innocent
AU - Rifas-Shiman, Sheryl L.
AU - Oken, Emily
N1 - Funding Information:
This project was funded by grants from the National Institutes of Health ( K24 HD069408 , R01 ES016314 , R01 HD 034568 ), the March of Dimes Foundation ( 20-FY03-27 ), and support from the Harvard Pilgrim Health Care Foundation . The funders had no role in the design and conduct of the study; collection, management, analysis, and interpretation of the data; and preparation, review, or approval of the manuscript.
Publisher Copyright:
© 2014 Elsevier Inc.
PY - 2014/12/1
Y1 - 2014/12/1
N2 - Purpose: Maternal lead exposure is associated with poor birth outcomes in populations with moderate to high blood levels. However, no studies have looked at exposure levels commonly experienced by US women. Methods: We evaluated the relationship between maternal red blood cell (RBC) lead levels in midpregnancy and birth outcomes in 949 mother-child pairs in a prebirth cohort. We used multiple linear regression and logistic regression, adjusted for potential confounders including maternal age, race, prepregnancy body mass index, and smoking to relate maternal lead to infant birth size and risk for preterm birth (<37weeks). Results: Mean RBC lead level was 1.2μg/dL (range, 0.0-5.0). Mean (standard deviation) birthweight was 3505 (520) g, birthweight for gestational age z-score 0.22 (0.93), and length of gestation 39.5 (1.7) weeks. Mothers in the highest versus lowest lead quartile did not have higher odds (OR, 1.85; 95% confidence interval [CI], 0.79-4.34) of preterm delivery; after stratifying by child sex, there was an association among males (OR, 5.51; 95% CI, 1.21-25.15) but not females (OR, 0.82; 95% CI, 0.24-2.85). Maternal RBC lead was not associated with any continuous outcomes in combined or sex-stratified analyses. Conclusions: Maternal lead exposure, even at very low levels, may adversely affect some childbirth outcomes, particularly preterm birth among males.
AB - Purpose: Maternal lead exposure is associated with poor birth outcomes in populations with moderate to high blood levels. However, no studies have looked at exposure levels commonly experienced by US women. Methods: We evaluated the relationship between maternal red blood cell (RBC) lead levels in midpregnancy and birth outcomes in 949 mother-child pairs in a prebirth cohort. We used multiple linear regression and logistic regression, adjusted for potential confounders including maternal age, race, prepregnancy body mass index, and smoking to relate maternal lead to infant birth size and risk for preterm birth (<37weeks). Results: Mean RBC lead level was 1.2μg/dL (range, 0.0-5.0). Mean (standard deviation) birthweight was 3505 (520) g, birthweight for gestational age z-score 0.22 (0.93), and length of gestation 39.5 (1.7) weeks. Mothers in the highest versus lowest lead quartile did not have higher odds (OR, 1.85; 95% confidence interval [CI], 0.79-4.34) of preterm delivery; after stratifying by child sex, there was an association among males (OR, 5.51; 95% CI, 1.21-25.15) but not females (OR, 0.82; 95% CI, 0.24-2.85). Maternal RBC lead was not associated with any continuous outcomes in combined or sex-stratified analyses. Conclusions: Maternal lead exposure, even at very low levels, may adversely affect some childbirth outcomes, particularly preterm birth among males.
KW - Birthweight
KW - Lead
KW - Pregnancy
KW - Preterm birth
UR - http://www.scopus.com/inward/record.url?scp=84927177696&partnerID=8YFLogxK
U2 - 10.1016/j.annepidem.2014.09.007
DO - 10.1016/j.annepidem.2014.09.007
M3 - Article
C2 - 25444892
AN - SCOPUS:84927177696
SN - 1047-2797
VL - 24
SP - 915
EP - 919
JO - Annals of Epidemiology
JF - Annals of Epidemiology
IS - 12
ER -