Journal
ENVIRONMENT INTERNATIONAL
Volume 153, Issue -, Pages -Publisher
PERGAMON-ELSEVIER SCIENCE LTD
DOI: 10.1016/j.envint.2021.106523
Keywords
Exposome; ADHD; Behavioural problems; CBCL; Chemicals; Children; Cohort; Environment; Epidemiology; Pollutants
Categories
Funding
- European Union [733206]
- Instituto de Salud Carlos III [CP14/00108, PI16/00261, PI16/00118]
- European Regional Development Fund A way to make Europe
- Juan de la Cierva-Incorporacion fellowship - Spanish Ministerio de Economia, Industria y Competitividad [IJC2018-035394-I]
- Spanish Institute of Health Carlos III (Ministry of Economy and Competitiveness) [MS14/00108]
- European Community [308333]
- Fondation de France (France) [00069251]
- Instituto de Salud Carlos III (Ministry of Economy and Competitiveness) [MS16/00128]
- Instituto de Salud Carlos III, CIBERESP
- Generalitat de Catalunya- CIRIT (Spain)
- Lithuanian Agency for Science Innovation and Technology [6042014_31V66]
- Norwegian Ministry of Health and Care Services
- Ministry of Education and Research
- European projects
- Greek Ministry of Health
- MICINN [MTM2015-68140-R]
- Centro Nacional de Genotipado- CEGEN- PRB2- ISCIII (Spain)
- National Institute for Health Research (NIHR) under its Collaboration for Applied Health Research and Care (CLAHRC) for Yorkshire and Humber (UK)
- Wellcome Trust (UK) [WT101597MA]
- European Union (ERDF) A way to make Europe
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The HELIX project investigated the impact of various prenatal and postnatal environmental exposures on child behavior, finding that smoking and car traffic during pregnancy were associated with behavioral problems in children. In childhood, healthy lifestyle habits such as longer sleep duration, healthy diet, and higher family social capital were linked to reduced behavioral issues, while exposure to lead, copper, indoor air pollution, and unhealthy diet were associated with increased behavioral problems. Unexpectedly, decreases in behavioral scores were observed with exposure to polychlorinated biphenyls (PCBs) and organophosphate (OP) pesticides.
Background: Environmental exposures in early life influence the development of behavioral outcomes in children, but research has not considered multiple exposures. We therefore aimed to investigate the impact of a broad spectrum of pre- and postnatal environmental exposures on child behavior. Methods and findings: We used data from the HELIX (Human Early Life Exposome) project, which was based on six longitudinal population-based birth cohorts in Europe. At 6-11 years, children underwent a follow-up to characterize their exposures and assess behavioral problems. We measured 88 prenatal and 123 childhood environmental factors, including outdoor, indoor, chemical, lifestyle and social exposures. Parent-reported behavioral problems included (1) internalizing, (2) externalizing scores, using the child behavior checklist (CBCL), and (3) the Conner's Attention Deficit Hyperactivity Disorder (ADHD) index, all outcomes being discrete raw counts. We applied LASSO penalized negative binomial regression models to identify which exposures were associated with the outcomes, while adjusting for co-exposures. In the 1287 children (mean age 8.0 years), 7.3% had a neuropsychiatric medical diagnosis according to parent's reports. During pregnancy, smoking and car traffic showing the strongest associations (e.g. smoking with ADHD index, aMR:1.31 [1.09; 1.59]) among the 13 exposures selected by LASSO, for at least one of the outcomes. During childhood, longer sleep duration, healthy diet and higher family social capital were associated with reduced scores whereas higher exposure to lead, copper, indoor air pollution, unhealthy diet were associated with increased scores. Unexpected decreases in behavioral scores were found with polychlorinated biphenyls (PCBs) and organophosphate (OP) pesticides. Conclusions: Our systematic exposome approach identified several environmental contaminants and healthy lifestyle habits that may influence behavioral problems in children. Modifying environmental exposures early in life may limit lifetime mental health risk.
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