Joint Exposure to Chemical and Nonchemical Neurodevelopmental Stressors in U.S. Women of Reproductive Age in NHANES

Amanda M. Evans, Glenn E. Rice, Linda K. Teuschler and J. Michael Wright
Additional contact information
Amanda M. Evans: Oak Ridge Institute for Science and Education (ORISE), U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA), Office of Research and Development, National Center for Environmental Assessment, Cincinnati, OH 45268, USA
Glenn E. Rice: EPA, Office of Research and Development, National Center for Environmental Assessment, Cincinnati, OH 45268, USA
Linda K. Teuschler: Linda Teuschler and Associates, St. Petersburg, FL 33707, USA
J. Michael Wright: EPA, Office of Research and Development, National Center for Environmental Assessment, Cincinnati, OH 45268, USA

IJERPH, 2014, vol. 11, issue 4, 1-18

Abstract: Lead (Pb) and methyl mercury (MeHg) are well established neurodevelopmental toxicants (NDTs), but joint exposure to chemical and nonchemical (e.g., maternal stress) stressors has rarely been considered. We characterized exposure to Pb, MeHg and a measure of physiological dysregulation associated with chronic stress and examined race/ethnicity as a predictor of joint NDT exposure. Using data from the 2003?2004 NHANES, potential chronic stress exposure was estimated using allostatic load (AL), a quantitative measure of physiological dysregulation. A Hazard Index was calculated for joint exposure to Pb and MeHg (HI NDT ). Logistic regression was used to assess the relationship between an indicator of elevated joint NDT exposures (HI NDT > 1) and race/ethnicity. The multivariate model was stratified by AL groups to examine effect measure modification. African American (adjusted odds ratio [OR] [95% confidence interval] = 2.2 [1.4, 3.3]) and Mexican American (1.4 [0.7, 2.6]) women were more likely to have an HI NDT > 1 compared to Caucasian women. Chronic stress was identified as an effect measure modifier with the largest ORs among women with high AL scores (African Americans = 4.3 [2.0, 9.5]; Mexican Americans = 4.2 [1.3, 14.1]). Chronic stress was found to modify the association between elevated joint NDT exposure and race/ethnicity, highlighting the importance of evaluating chemical and nonchemical stressor exposures leading to a common endpoint.

Keywords: allostatic load (AL); chronic stress; cumulative exposure assessment; cumulative risk assessment (CRA); hazard index (HI); nonchemical stressors; neurodevelopment; physiological dysregulation; susceptibility; vulnerability (search for similar items in EconPapers)
JEL-codes: I I1 I3 Q Q5 (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Date: 2014
References: View references in EconPapers View complete reference list from CitEc
Citations: View citations in EconPapers (3)

Downloads: (external link)
https://www.mdpi.com/1660-4601/11/4/4384/pdf (application/pdf)
https://www.mdpi.com/1660-4601/11/4/4384/ (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:11:y:2014:i:4:p:4384-4401:d:35319

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 ().