Prenatal Exposure to Organophosphorus Pesticides and Childhood Neurodevelopmental Phenotypes

Citation

Furlong, Melissa A.; Herring, Amy H.; Buckley, Jessie P.; Goldman, Barbara Davis; Daniels, Julie L.; Engel, Lawrence S.; Wolff, Mary S.; Chen, Jia; Wetmur, Jim; & Barr, Dana Boyd, et al. (2017). Prenatal Exposure to Organophosphorus Pesticides and Childhood Neurodevelopmental Phenotypes. Environmental Research, 158, 737-747. PMCID: PMC5577985

Abstract

Prenatal exposure to organophosphorus pesticides (OPs) has been associated with different neurodevelopmental outcomes across different cohorts. A phenotypic approach may address some of these differences by incorporating information across scales and accounting for the complex correlational structure of neurodevelopmental outcomes. Additionally, Bayesian hierarchical modeling can account for confounding by collinear co exposures. We use this framework to examine associations between prenatal exposure to OPs and behavior, executive functioning, and IQ assessed at age 6-9 years in a cohort of 404 mother/infant pairs recruited during pregnancy. We derived phenotypes of neurodevelopment with a factor analysis, and estimated associations between OP metabolites and these phenotypes in Bayesian hierarchical models for exposure mixtures. We report seven factors: 1) Impulsivity and Externalizing, 2) Executive Functioning, 3) Internalizing, 4) Perceptual Reasoning, 5) Adaptability, 6) Processing Speed, and 7) Verbal Intelligence. These, along with the Working Memory Index, were standardized and scaled so that positive values reflected positive attributes and negative values represented adverse outcomes. Standardized dimethylphosphate metabolites were negatively associated with Internalizing factor scores ((beta) over cap - 0.13, 95% CI - 0.26, 0.00) but positively associated with Executive Functioning factor scores ((beta) over cap 0.18, 95% CI 0.04, 0.31). Standardized diethylphosphate metabolites were negatively associated with the Working Memory Index ((beta) over cap - 0.17, 95% CI - 0.33, - 0.03). Associations with factor scores were generally stronger and more precise than associations with individual instrument-specific items. Factor analysis of outcomes may provide some advantages in etiological studies of childhood neurodevelopment by incorporating information across scales to reduce dimensionality and improve precision.

URL

http://dx.doi.org/10.1016/j.envres.2017.07.023

Reference Type

Journal Article

Year Published

2017

Journal Title

Environmental Research

Author(s)

Furlong, Melissa A.
Herring, Amy H.
Buckley, Jessie P.
Goldman, Barbara Davis
Daniels, Julie L.
Engel, Lawrence S.
Wolff, Mary S.
Chen, Jia
Wetmur, Jim
Barr, Dana Boyd
Engel, Stephanie M.

PMCID

PMC5577985