Serum Concentrations of Selected Organochlorines in Pregnant Women and Associations with Pregnancy Outcomes. A Cross-Sectional Study from Two Rural Settings in Cambodia

Margit Steinholt, Shanshan Xu, Sam Ol Ha, Duong Trong Phi, Maria Lisa Odland and Jon Øyvind Odland
Additional contact information
Margit Steinholt: Department of Public Health and Nursing, Norwegian University of Science and Technology, 7491 Trondheim, Norway
Shanshan Xu: Department of Public Health and Nursing, Norwegian University of Science and Technology, 7491 Trondheim, Norway
Sam Ol Ha: Trauma Care Foundation, Battambang, Cambodia
Duong Trong Phi: Department of Environment and School Health, Nha Trang Pasteur Institutte, Nha Trang, Khánh Hòa 650000, Vietnam
Maria Lisa Odland: Institute of Applied Health Research, University of Birmingham, Birmingham B152TT, UK
Jon Øyvind Odland: Department of Public Health and Nursing, Norwegian University of Science and Technology, 7491 Trondheim, Norway

IJERPH, 2020, vol. 17, issue 20, 1-15

Abstract: We conducted a cross-sectional study among 194 pregnant women from two low-income settings in Cambodia. The inclusion period lasted from October 2015 through December 2017. Maternal serum samples were analyzed for persistent organic pollutants (POPs). The aim was to study potential effects on birth outcomes. We found low levels of polychlorinated biphenyls (PCBs) and organochlorine pesticides (OCP), except for heptachlors, β-hexachlorocyclohexane (HCH), heptachlor epoxide, and p,p’-DDE. There were few differences between the two study locations. However, the women from the poorest areas had significantly higher concentrations of p,p’-DDE ( p < 0.001) and hexachlorobenzene (HCB) ( p = 0.002). The maternal factors associated with exposure were parity, age, residential area, and educational level. Despite low maternal levels of polychlorinated biphenyls, we found significant negative associations between the PCB congeners 99 (95% CI: −2.51 to −0.07), 138 (95% CI: −1.28 to −0.32), and 153 (95% CI: −1.06 to −0.05) and gestational age. Further, there were significant negative associations between gestational age, birth length, and maternal levels of o,p’-DDE. Moreover, o,p’-DDD had positive associations with birth weight, and both p,p’-DDD and o,p’-DDE were positively associated with the baby’s ponderal index. The poorest population had higher exposure and less favorable outcomes.

Keywords: polychlorinated biphenyls; organochlorine pesticides; low-resource settings; pregnancy outcomes; neonatal health; stunting (search for similar items in EconPapers)
JEL-codes: I I1 I3 Q Q5 (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Date: 2020
References: View references in EconPapers View complete reference list from CitEc
Citations: View citations in EconPapers (1)

Downloads: (external link)
https://www.mdpi.com/1660-4601/17/20/7652/pdf (application/pdf)
https://www.mdpi.com/1660-4601/17/20/7652/ (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:17:y:2020:i:20:p:7652-:d:431844

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 ().