Prenatal Exposure to Perfluoroalkyl Substances: Infant Birth Weight and Early Life Growth

Environ Epidemiol. 2018 Jun;2(2):e010. doi: 10.1097/EE9.0000000000000010.

Abstract

Background: Prenatal perfluoroalkyl substance (PFAS) exposure has been associated with reduced birth weight and excess child adiposity, but the relationship between PFAS and early life growth is unknown.

Objective: To determine if prenatal PFAS exposure was associated with birth weight, body composition and growth until 2 years of age.

Methods: In a prospective cohort of women and their children from Cincinnati, OH, we quantified perfluorooctanoic acid (PFOA), perfluorooctane sulfonic acid (PFOS), perfluorononanoic acid (PFNA), and perfluorohexane sulfonic acid (PFHxS) in pregnant women's serum. We used linear regression to estimate associations of PFAS with birth weight z-scores (n=345) and linear mixed models to estimate associations with repeated weight and length/height measurements (n=334) at ages 4 weeks and 1 and 2 years, after adjusting for sociodemographic, perinatal, nutritional, and environmental factors.

Results: We found non-significant inverse associations between PFAS and infant birth weight. For example, each log2 increase in PFOA was associated with a 0.03 standard deviation reduction in birth weight z-score (95% CI:-0.17, 0.10). Compared to associations with birth weight, we observed stronger associations between PFAS and child anthropometry from 4 weeks to 2 years. For instance, each log2 increase in PFOA was associated with a 0.12 standard deviation decrease in BMI z-score (95% CI: -0.25, 0.01). We did not observe any differences in growth rate associated with PFAS.

Conclusion: We observed inverse associations between prenatal serum PFAS concentrations and anthropometry until age 2 years. Prenatal serum PFAS concentrations were not associated with growth rate in the first 2 years of life.