Association Between Lead Exposure and Red Blood Cell Folate Concentrations in U.S. Children Aged 2–17 Years: An Analysis of Data from NHANES 2007–2018

Wenping Hu (), Tanya Telfair LeBlanc, Perri Zeitz Ruckart, Quanza Shavonne Brooks-Griffin and Paul Allwood
Additional contact information
Wenping Hu: National Center for Environmental Health, Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, Atlanta, GA 30341, USA
Tanya Telfair LeBlanc: National Center for Environmental Health, Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, Atlanta, GA 30341, USA
Perri Zeitz Ruckart: National Center for Environmental Health, Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, Atlanta, GA 30341, USA
Quanza Shavonne Brooks-Griffin: National Center for Environmental Health, Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, Atlanta, GA 30341, USA
Paul Allwood: National Center for Environmental Health, Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, Atlanta, GA 30341, USA

IJERPH, 2024, vol. 21, issue 12, 1-8

Abstract: The objective of this study is to evaluate the impact of low blood lead levels (BLLs) on the red blood cell folate concentrations in U.S. children aged 2–17 years. All data were obtained from the National Health and Nutrition Examination Survey (NHANES) over six consecutive cycles from 2007–2008 to 2017–2018. A total of 12,739 children with BLLs lower than 10 µg/dL (geometric mean: 0.66 µg/dL) were included in the dataset. BLLs were categorized into three tertiles (tertile 1: <0.55 µg/dL; tertile 2: 0.55–0.95 µg/dL; and tertile 3: ≥0.95 µg/dL). The multivariate linear regression model analysis indicates a negative relationship between BLLs and red blood cell folate concentrations. After adjusting for potential confounding factors, red blood cell folate concentrations were lower in children in the BLL tertile 2 (β-coefficient = −0.0450; 95% CI: −0.0676, −0.0224) and BLL tertile 3 groups (β-coefficient = −0.0775; 95% CI: −0.1032, −0.0517) compared to children in the BLL tertile 1 group. When stratified by age, gender, and race/Hispanic origin, the subgroup analysis consistently revealed a negative relationship between BLLs and red blood cell folate concentrations, with red blood cell folate concentrations being lower ( p < 0.05) in children in the BLL tertile 3 group compared to children in the tertile 1 group. Further investigation is needed to explore the mechanism underlying the potential relationship between BLLs and red blood cell folate concentrations and determine whether folate plays an active role beneficial for preventing the harmful effects of lead on children.

Keywords: red blood cell folate; blood lead level; children; NHANES (search for similar items in EconPapers)
JEL-codes: I I1 I3 Q Q5 (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Date: 2024
References: View complete reference list from CitEc
Citations:

Downloads: (external link)
https://www.mdpi.com/1660-4601/21/12/1676/pdf (application/pdf)
https://www.mdpi.com/1660-4601/21/12/1676/ (text/html)

Related works:
This item may be available elsewhere in EconPapers: Search for items with the same title.

Export reference: BibTeX RIS (EndNote, ProCite, RefMan) HTML/Text

Persistent link: https://EconPapers.repec.org/RePEc:gam:jijerp:v:21:y:2024:i:12:p:1676-:d:1545279

Access Statistics for this article

IJERPH is currently edited by Ms. Jenna Liu

More articles in IJERPH from MDPI
Bibliographic data for series maintained by MDPI Indexing Manager ().