Abstract
The potential human health effects of bisphenol A (BPA) exposure are a public health concern. In order to design adequately powered epidemiological studies to address potential health effects, data on the reproducibility of BPA concentration in serial urine specimens taken during pregnancy are needed. To provide additional data on the reproducibility of maternal urine specimens, 80 women in the Generation R Study (Rotterdam, The Netherlands) contributed a spot urine specimen at <18, 18–25, and >25 weeks of pregnancy. Reproducibility, estimated by the intraclass correlation coefficient (ICC), was 0.32 (95% confidence interval: 0.18–0.46), and, on a creatinine basis, 0.31 (95% confidence interval: 0.16–0.47). Although the ICC observed in the Generation R Study is slightly higher than previous reproducibility studies of BPA, it nevertheless indicates a high degree of within-person variability that presents challenges for designing well-powered epidemiologic studies.
This is a preview of subscription content, access via your institution
Access options
Subscribe to this journal
Receive 6 print issues and online access
$259.00 per year
only $43.17 per issue
Buy this article
- Purchase on Springer Link
- Instant access to full article PDF
Prices may be subject to local taxes which are calculated during checkout
Similar content being viewed by others
References
Vandenberg LN, Hauser R, Marcus M, Olea N, Welshons WV . Human exposure to bisphenol A (BPA). Reprod Toxicol. 2007; 24: 139–177.
Vandenberg LN, Chahoud I, Heindel JJ, Padmanabhan V, Paumgartten FJ, Schoenfelder G . Urinary, circulating, and tissue biomonitoring studies indicate widespread exposure to bisphenol A. Environ Health Perspect 2010; 118: 1055–1070.
Volkel W, Colnot T, Csanady GA, Filser JG, Dekant W . Metabolism and kinetics of bisphenol A in humans at low doses following oral administration. Chem Res Toxicol 2002; 15: 1281–1287.
White E, Armstrong BK, Saracci R . Principles of Exposure Measurement in Epidemiology: Collecting, Evaluating, and Improving Measures of Disease Risk Factors, 2nd edn. Oxford University Press: Oxford, New York. 2008 xi, pp 428.
Braun JM, Hauser R . Bisphenol A and children’s health. Curr Opin Pediatr 2011; 23: 233–239.
Braun JM, Kalkbrenner AE, Calafat AM, Yolton K, Ye X, Dietrich KN et al. Impact of early-life bisphenol A exposure on behavior and executive function in children. Pediatrics 2011; 128: 873–882.
Perera F, Vishnevetsky J, Herbstman JB, Calafat AM, Xiong W, Rauh V et al. Prenatal bisphenol A exposure and child behavior in an inner-city cohort. Environ Health Perspect 2012; 120: 1190–1194.
Jaddoe VW, Mackenbach JP, Moll HA, Steegers EA, Tiemeier H, Verhulst FC et al. The Generation R Study: design and cohort profile. Eur J Epidemiol 2006; 21: 475–484.
Ye X, Pierik FH, Hauser R, Duty S, Angerer J, Park MM et al. Urinary metabolite concentrations of organophosphorous pesticides, bisphenol A, and phthalates among pregnant women in Rotterdam, the Netherlands: the Generation R study. Environ Res. 2008; 108: 260–267.
Jaddoe VW, Bakker R, van Duijn CM, van der Heijden AJ, Lindemans J, Mackenbach JP et al. The Generation R Study Biobank: a resource for epidemiological studies in children and their parents. Eur J Epidemiol 2007; 22: 917–923.
Bonett DG . Sample size requirements for estimating intraclass correlations with desired precision. Stat Med. 2002; 21: 1331–1335.
Koch HM, Kolossa-Gehring M, Schroter-Kermani C, Angerer J, Bruning T . Bisphenol A in 24 h urine and plasma samples of the German Environmental Specimen Bank from 1995 to 2009: a retrospective exposure evaluation. J Exposure Sci Environ Epidemiol 2012; 22: 610–616.
Larsen K . Creatinine assay in the presence of protein with LKB 8600 Reaction Rate Analyser. Clin Chim Acta 1972; 38: 475–476.
R Development Core Team 2012 R: A Language and Environment for Statistical Computing. R Foundation for Statistical Computing V: Austria, ISBN 3-900051-07-0, URL http://www.R-project.org/.
Fleiss JL . The Design and Analysis of Clinical Experiments. Wiley: New York. 1986 xiv, pp 432.
Braun JM, Kalkbrenner AE, Calafat AM, Bernert JT, Ye X, Silva MJ et al. Variability and predictors of urinary bisphenol A concentrations during pregnancy. Environ Health Perspect 2011; 119: 131–137.
Braun JM, Smith KW, Williams PL, Calafat AM, Berry K, Ehrlich S et al. Variability of urinary phthalate metabolite and bisphenol A concentrations before and during pregnancy. Environ Health Perspect 2012; 120: 739–745.
Casas M, Valvi D, Luque N, Ballesteros-Gomez A, Carsin AE, Fernandez MF et al. Dietary and sociodemographic determinants of bisphenol A urine concentrations in pregnant women and children. Environ Int 2013; 56: 10–18.
You L, Zhu X, Shrubsole MJ, Fan H, Chen J, Dong J et al. Renal function, bisphenol A, and alkylphenols: results from the National Health and Nutrition Examination Survey (NHANES 2003-2006). Environ Health Perspect 2011; 119: 527–533.
Longnecker MP, Harbak K, Kissling GE, Hoppin JA, Eggesbo M, Jusko TA et al. The concentration of bisphenol A in urine is affected by specimen collection, a preservative, and handling. Environ Res. 2013; 126: 211–214.
Ye X, Zhou X, Hennings R, Kramer J, Calafat AM . Potential external contamination with bisphenol A and other ubiquitous organic environmental chemicals during biomonitoring analysis: an elusive laboratory challenge. Environ Health Perspect 2013; 121: 283–286.
Acknowledgements
We thank Joe Braun for providing additional results from the EARTH study, and Walter Rogan and Jane Hoppin who provided comments on an earlier draft of the manuscript. We also thank Kelly Thevenet-Morrison who provided programming assistance. This research received support from the Intramural Research Program of the National Institutes of Health, National Institute of Environmental Health Sciences, the Erasmus Medical Center and Erasmus University Rotterdam, The Netherlands Organization for Health Research and Development (ZonMw), and from NIH grants K12 ES019852 and P30 ES001247.
Author information
Authors and Affiliations
Corresponding author
Ethics declarations
Competing interests
The authors declare no conflict of interest.
Rights and permissions
About this article
Cite this article
Jusko, T., Shaw, P., Snijder, C. et al. Reproducibility of urinary bisphenol A concentrations measured during pregnancy in the Generation R Study. J Expo Sci Environ Epidemiol 24, 532–536 (2014). https://doi.org/10.1038/jes.2014.23
Received:
Accepted:
Published:
Issue Date:
DOI: https://doi.org/10.1038/jes.2014.23