Cross-sectional and prospective associations of early childhood circulating metals with early and mid-childhood cognition in the Project Viva cohort

Details

• Alternative Title:
  Environ Res
• Personal Author:
  Thilakaratne, Ruwan ; Lin, Pi-I D. ; Rifas-Shiman, Sheryl L. ; Landero, Julio ; Wright, Robert O. ; Bellinger, David ; Oken, Emily ; Cardenas, Andres
• Description:
  Background:
  
  Relatively little is known about the immediate and prospective neurodevelopmental impacts of joint exposure to multiple metals (i.e., metal mixtures) in early childhood.
  
  Objectives:
  
  To estimate associations of early childhood (~3 years of age) blood metal concentrations with cognitive test scores at early and mid-childhood (~8 years of age).
  
  Methods:
  
  We studied children from the Project Viva cohort. We measured erythrocyte concentrations of seven essential (Co, Cu, Mg, Mn, Mo, Se, and Zn) and eight non-essential metals (As, Ba, Cd, Cs, Hg, Pb, Sn, and Sr) in early childhood blood samples. Trained research assistants administered cognitive tests assessing vocabulary, visual-motor ability, memory, and general intelligence (standard deviations: ~10 points), in early and mid-childhood. We employed multivariable linear regression to examine associations of individual metals with test scores adjusting for confounders, other concurrently measured metals, and first-trimester maternal blood metals. We also estimated joint associations and explored interaction between metals in mixture analyses.
  
  Results:
  
  We analyzed 349 children (median whole blood Pb ~1 μg/dL). In cross-sectional analyses, each doubling of Pb was associated with lower visual-motor function (mean difference: −2.43 points, 95% confidence interval (CI): −4.01, −0.86) and receptive vocabulary, i.e., words understood (−1.45 points, 95% CI: −3.26, 0.36). Associations of Pb with mid-childhood cognition were weaker and less precise by comparison. Mg was positively associated with cognition in cross-sectional but not prospective analyses, and cross-sectional associations were attenuated in a sensitivity analysis removing adjustment for concurrent metals. We did not observe joint associations nor interactions.
  
  Discussion:
  
  In this cohort with low blood Pb levels, increased blood Pb was robustly associated with lower cognitive ability in cross-sectional analyses, even after adjustment for prenatal Pb exposure, and regardless of adjustment for metal co-exposures. However, associations with mid-childhood cognition were attenuated and imprecise, suggesting some buffering of Pb neurotoxicity in early life.
  
  
• Subjects:
  Child Child, Preschool Cognition Cross-Sectional Studies Female Humans Lead Mercury Neuropsychological Tests Pregnancy
• Source:
  Environ Res. 246:118068
• Pubmed ID:
  38157961
• Pubmed Central ID:
  PMC10947878
• Document Type:
  Journal Article
• Funding:
  T42 OH008429/OH/NIOSH CDC HHSUnited States/ ; F31 ES034639/ES/NIEHS NIH HHSUnited States/ ; UL1 TR004419/TR/NCATS NIH HHSUnited States/ ; R01 HD034568/HD/NICHD NIH HHSUnited States/ ; R01 ES031259/ES/NIEHS NIH HHSUnited States/ ; UH3 OD023286/OD/NIH HHSUnited States/
• Volume:
  246
• Collection(s):
  CDC Public Access
• Main Document Checksum:
  urn:sha-512:d9820f4ff9d7cd105b2ed36f4cf6be3bf73dde8e6fba62971345147e261285712b1a56d8d3c44b8022ecbb85ad1131894b6b54aadce7171350a82d42d2b44bea
• Download URL:
  https://stacks.cdc.gov/view/cdc/151754/cdc_151754_DS1.pdf
• File Type:
  [PDF - 1.16 MB ]