Knowledge of diagnosis and reproductive history among survivors of childhood plumbism

Abstract

As part of a study of the long-term consequences of childhood plumbism, 35 survivors of lead poisoning in the period 1930 through 1944 were interviewed along with 22 controls matched for age, sex, and town of residence. Subjects were asked to recall all pregnancies they engendered (men) or carried (women), outcome, and intellectual development of resulting children. Matched female plumbism subjects reported a higher proportion of spontaneous abortion or stillbirths among pregnancies (relative risk = 1.60, 95% confidence interval [CI] = 0.6-4.0) and a higher proportion of learning disabilities among school-age children (relative risk = 3.0, 95% CI = 0.9-10.2) in comparison with their controls. There was no evidence of clustering of learning disabilities within families or confounding by parental educational level. These results suggest that women with a history of childhood lead poisoning may be at risk for having spontaneous abortions or stillbirths and having children who manifest significant learning disabilities.