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Racial and ethnic variations in phthalate metabolite concentration changes across full-term pregnancies

Journal of Exposure Science & Environmental Epidemiology volume 27, pages 160–166 (2017)Cite this article

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Abstract

Higher concentrations of certain phthalate metabolites are associated with adverse reproductive and pregnancy outcomes, as well as poor infant/child health outcomes. In non-pregnant populations, phthalate metabolite concentrations vary by race/ethnicity. Few studies have documented racial/ethnic differences between phthalate metabolite concentrations at multiple time points across the full-course of pregnancy. The objective of the study was to characterize the change in phthalate metabolite concentrations by race/ethnicity across multiple pregnancy time points. Women were participants in a prospectively collected pregnancy cohort who delivered at term (≥37 weeks) and had available urinary phthalate metabolite concentrations for ≥3 time points across full-term pregnancies (n=350 women). We assessed urinary concentrations of eight phthalate metabolites that were log-transformed and specific gravity-adjusted. We evaluated the potential racial/ethnic differences in phthalate metabolite concentrations at baseline (median 10 weeks gestation) using ANOVA and across pregnancy using linear mixed models to calculate the percent change and 95% confidence intervals adjusted for sociodemographic and lifestyle factors. Almost 30% of the population were non-Hispanic black or Hispanic. With the exception of mono-(3-carboxypropyl) (MCPP) and di-ethylhexyl phthalate (DEHP) metabolites, baseline levels of phthalate metabolites were significantly higher in non-whites (P<0.05). When evaluating patterns by race/ethnicity, mono-ethyl phthalate (MEP) and MCPP had significant percent changes across pregnancy. MEP was higher in Hispanics at baseline and decreased in mid-pregnancy but increased in late pregnancy for non-Hispanic blacks. MCPP was substantially higher in non-Hispanic blacks at baseline but decreased later in pregnancy. Across pregnancy, non-Hispanic black and Hispanic women had higher concentrations of certain phthalate metabolites. These differences may have implications for racial/ethnic differences in adverse pregnancy and child health outcomes.

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Acknowledgements

This research was funded by the Eunice Kennedy Shriver National Institute of Child Health and Human Development (K12HD051959) and The National Institute of Environmental Health Sciences (R01ES018872, P30ES017885).

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Division of Women’s Health, Department of Medicine, Connors Center for Women’s Health and Gender Biology, Brigham and Women’s Hospital and Harvard Medical School, Boston, Massachusetts, USA

    Tamarra M James-Todd, Tianyi Huang & Janet W Rich-Edwards

  2. Department of Environmental Health Sciences, University of Michigan School of Public Health, Ann Arbor, Michigan, USA

    Tamarra M James-Todd, John D Meeker & Kelly K Ferguson

  3. Department of Epidemiology, Harvard T.H. Chan School of Public Health, Boston, Massachusetts, USA

    Tamarra M James-Todd, Tianyi Huang, Russ Hauser & Janet W Rich-Edwards

  4. Department of Environmental Health, Harvard T. H. Chan School of Public Health, Boston, Massachusetts, USA

    Russ Hauser

  5. Division of Endocrine, Diabetes, and Hypertension, Brigham and Women’s Hospital and Harvard Medical School, Boston, Massachusetts, USA

    Ellen W Seely

  6. Division of Maternal Fetal Medicine, Brigham and Women’s Hospital and Harvard Medical School, Boston, Massachusetts, USA

    Thomas F McElrath

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  1. Tamarra M James-Todd
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  2. John D Meeker
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  3. Tianyi Huang
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Correspondence to Tamarra M James-Todd.

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James-Todd, T., Meeker, J., Huang, T. et al. Racial and ethnic variations in phthalate metabolite concentration changes across full-term pregnancies. J Expo Sci Environ Epidemiol 27, 160–166 (2017). https://doi.org/10.1038/jes.2016.2

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