Skip to main page content
U.S. flag

An official website of the United States government

Dot gov

The .gov means it’s official.
Federal government websites often end in .gov or .mil. Before sharing sensitive information, make sure you’re on a federal government site.

Https

The site is secure.
The https:// ensures that you are connecting to the official website and that any information you provide is encrypted and transmitted securely.

Access keys NCBI Homepage MyNCBI Homepage Main Content Main Navigation
. 2017 Nov;220(8):1347-1355.
doi: 10.1016/j.ijheh.2017.09.005. Epub 2017 Sep 12.

Urinary phthalate metabolite concentrations and maternal weight during early pregnancy

Andrea Bellavia  1 , Russ Hauser  2 , Ellen W Seely  3 , John D Meeker  4 , Kelly K Ferguson  5 , Thomas F McElrath  6 , Tamarra James-Todd  7
Affiliations

Urinary phthalate metabolite concentrations and maternal weight during early pregnancy

Andrea Bellavia et al. Int J Hyg Environ Health. 2017 Nov.

Abstract

Background: Phthalates are a class of chemicals that may be associated with obesity in non-pregnant populations. Little is known about the association between pregnancy phthalate exposure and maternal obesity.

Objective: We evaluated the association between early-pregnancy urinary concentrations of specific phthalate metabolites and the distribution of body mass index (BMI, cross-sectional), and early gestational weight gain (GWG, prospective).

Methods: We measured 1st trimester urinary phthalate metabolite concentrations (median 9.9 weeks gestation) in 347 women from the LIFECODES pregnancy cohort (Boston, MA), who delivered term births. All measures were adjusted for specific-gravity and log-transformed. We used quantile regression to evaluate shifts in the entire outcome distributions, calculating multivariable-adjusted differences in the associations between these phthalate metabolites and BMI and GWG at the 25th, 50th, and 75th percentiles of these anthropometric outcomes.

Results: Higher concentrations of mono-ethyl phthalate (MEP) were associated with a rightward shift of 2.8kg/m2 at the 75th percentiles of BMI (lowest vs highest quartile, 95% CI: 0.2-5.4) and 1.3kg at the 75th percentiles of early GWG (lowest vs second quartiles, 95% CI: 0.3-2.4). A significant right-shift in the upper tail of BMI was also observed at higher concentrations of mono-benzyl (MBzP), mono-3-carboxypropyl (MCPP), and a summary measure of di-(2-ethylhexyl) phthalate metabolites (∑DEHP). ∑DEHP was also associated with lower GWG.

Conclusions: Certain phthalates may be associated with shifts in maternal obesity measures, with MEP, MBzP, MCPP, and ∑DEHP being cross-sectionally associated with 1st trimester BMI and MEP and ∑DEHP being positively and inversely associated with early GWG, respectively.

Keywords: Maternal obesity; Phthalates; Pregnancy; Quantile regression.

PubMed Disclaimer

Conflict of interest statement

Conflict of interest: The authors declare no conflict of interest.

Figures

Figure 1
Figure 1. Multivariable-adjusted distribution shifts of BMI as a function of baseline urinary phthalates levels
Phthalates metabolites were flexibly modeled with restricted cubic splines with the lowest concentration serving as referent value. The histograms depict the distribution of phthalate levels in the study population. All models are adjusted for maternal age, race/ethnicity, education, smoking, alcohol. Shifts are at the mean, 25th, 50th, and 75th percentile of the outcome distribution.
Figure 2
Figure 2. Multivariable-adjusted distribution shifts of early gestational weight gain (GWG, kg) as a function of 1st trimester urinary MEP and ΣDEHP phthalate metabolites levels. Shifts are at the mean, 25th, 50th, and 75th percentile of the outcome distribution
MEP and ΣDEHP concentration were flexibly modeled with restricted cubic splines with the lowest concentrations serving as referent value. The histograms depict the distribution of the metabolite in the study population. Models are adjusted for maternal age, race/ethnicity, education, smoking, alcohol, baseline BMI
Figure 3
Figure 3. Multivariable-adjusted trajectories of the distribution of gestational weight (kg) across pregnancy over quartiles of log-transformed SG-adjusted MEP metabolite concentration
Mean trajectory estimated with linear mixed models. Trajectories of the 25th, 50th, and 75th percentiles estimated with mixed quantile regression. All models adjusted for maternal age, race/ethnicity, education, smoking, alcohol, baseline BMI. Median gestation weeks, Visit 1: 9.9; Visit 2: 17.3; Visit 3: 26.1; Visit 4: 35.3.
See this image and copyright information in PMC

References

    1. Beyerlein A. Quantile Regression—opportunities and Challenges from a User’s Perspective. American Journal of Epidemiology. 2014;180(3):330–331. - PubMed
    1. Biemann R, Fischer B, Santos AN. Adipogenic Effects of a Combination of the Endocrine-Disrupting Compounds Bisphenol A, Diethylhexylphthalate, and Tributyltin. Obesity Facts. 2014;7(1):48–56. - PMC - PubMed
    1. Biemann R, Santos AN, Santos AN, Riemann D, Knelangen J, Bluher M, et al. Endocrine Disrupting Chemicals Affect the Adipogenic Differentiation of Mesenchymal Stem Cells in Distinct Ontogenetic Windows. Biochemical and Biophysical Research Communications. 2012;417(2):747–752. - PubMed
    1. Bind MA, Coull BA, Baccarelli AA, Tarantini L, Cantone L, Vokonas P, Schwartz J. Distributional Changes in Gene-Specific Methylation Associated with Temperature. Environmental Research. 2016;150:38–46. - PMC - PubMed
    1. Bind MA, Coull BA, Peters A, Baccarelli AA, Tarantini L, Cantone L, et al. Beyond the Mean: Quantile Regression to Explore the Association of Air Pollution with Gene-Specific Methylation in the Normative Aging Study. Environmental Health Perspectives. 2015;123(8):759–765. - PMC - PubMed

Publication types