Childhood Fish Consumption and Learning and Behavioral Disorders

Jenny L. Carwile, Lindsey J. Butler, Patricia A. Janulewicz, Michael R. Winter and Ann Aschengrau
Additional contact information
Jenny L. Carwile: Department of Epidemiology, Boston University School of Public Health, Boston, MA 02118, USA
Lindsey J. Butler: Department of Epidemiology, Boston University School of Public Health, Boston, MA 02118, USA
Patricia A. Janulewicz: Department of Environmental Health, Boston University School of Public Health, Boston, MA 02118, USA
Michael R. Winter: Data Coordinating Center, Boston University School of Public Health, Boston, MA 02118, USA
Ann Aschengrau: Department of Epidemiology, Boston University School of Public Health, Boston, MA 02118, USA

IJERPH, 2016, vol. 13, issue 11, 1-15

Abstract: Fish is a major source of nutrients critical for brain development during early life. The importance of childhood fish consumption is supported by several studies reporting associations of n-3 polyunsaturated fatty acid (n-3 PUFA) supplementation with better behavior and school performance. However, fish may have a different effect than n-3 PUFA alone due to the neurotoxic effects of methylmercury, a frequent contaminant. We investigated associations of childhood fish consumption with learning and behavioral disorders in birth cohort study of the neurotoxic effects of early life exposure to solvent-contaminated drinking water. Childhood (age 7–12 years) fish consumption and learning and behavioral problems were reported in self-administered questionnaires (age 23–41 at questionnaire completion). Fish consumption was not meaningfully associated with repeating a grade, tutoring, attending summer school, special class placement, or low educational attainment. However, participants who ate fish several times a week had an elevated odds of Attention Deficit Disorder/Attention Deficit Hyperactivity Disorder (odds ratio: 5.2; 95% confidence interval: 1.5–18) compared to participants who did not eat fish. While these findings generally support the safety of the observed level of fish consumption, the absence of a beneficial effect may be attributed to insufficient fish intake or the choice of relatively low n-3 PUFA fish.

Keywords: ADD; ADHD; fish; learning disorders; methylmercury (search for similar items in EconPapers)
JEL-codes: I I1 I3 Q Q5 (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Date: 2016
References: View complete reference list from CitEc
Citations:

Downloads: (external link)
https://www.mdpi.com/1660-4601/13/11/1069/pdf (application/pdf)
https://www.mdpi.com/1660-4601/13/11/1069/ (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:13:y:2016:i:11:p:1069-:d:82001

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 ().