Correlations of Biomarkers and Self-Reported Seafood Consumption among Pregnant and Non-Pregnant Women in Southeastern Louisiana after the Gulf Oil Spill: The GROWH Study

Leah Zilversmit, Jeffrey Wickliffe, Arti Shankar, Robert J. Taylor and Emily W. Harville
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Leah Zilversmit: Department of Epidemiology, Tulane School of Public Health and Tropical Medicine, New Orleans, LA 70112, USA
Jeffrey Wickliffe: Department of Global Environmental Health Sciences, Tulane School of Public Health and Tropical Medicine, New Orleans, LA 70112, USA
Arti Shankar: Department of Global Biostatistics and Data Science, Tulane School of Public Health and Tropical Medicine, New Orleans, LA 70112, USA, sarti@tulane.edu
Robert J. Taylor: Department of Veterinary Integrative Biosciences, Texas A&M University, College Station, TX 77843, USA
Emily W. Harville: Department of Epidemiology, Tulane School of Public Health and Tropical Medicine, New Orleans, LA 70112, USA

IJERPH, 2017, vol. 14, issue 7, 1-12

Abstract: Seafood contains health-promoting fatty acids, but is often contaminated with mercury (Hg), complicating recommendations and choices around fish consumption during pregnancy. Self-reported diet may be subject to inaccuracy and this inaccuracy could differ according to pregnancy status. We investigated correlations between self-reported seafood consumption and blood levels of Hg and n-3 polyunsaturated fatty acids (PUFAs) in women affected by the Deepwater Horizon oil spill. Spearman correlation coefficients were calculated comparing log blood Hg and n-3 PUFAs to seafood consumption, then stratified by pregnancy status. Crude and adjusted linear regression models were constructed using biomarkers of Hg and n-3 PUFA and seafood consumption, adjusting for age and pregnancy status. Weak but significant correlations were found between log Hg levels and intake of Hg-containing seafood ( r = 0.15) and were slightly stronger among pregnant women ( r = 0.22, vs. r = 0.10). Biomarkers for n-3 PUFAs were significantly correlated with seafood consumption ( r = 0.12). Hg-containing seafood consumption was associated with increased blood level Hg in the highest quartile in both unadjusted (? = 0.34, 95% CI: 0.15–0.53) and adjusted models (? = 0.28, 95% CI: 0.08–0.48). Self-reported seafood consumption was correlated with biomarkers of both n-3 PUFA and Hg, but this association was different when stratified by pregnancy status. Pregnant women may have better recall of Hg-containing seafood compared to nonpregnant women.

Keywords: seafood consumption; mercury exposure; food frequency questionnaires; pregnancy; polyunsaturated fatty acids (search for similar items in EconPapers)
JEL-codes: I I1 I3 Q Q5 (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Date: 2017
References: View complete reference list from CitEc
Citations: View citations in EconPapers (1)

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