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
. 2021 Jun:151:106415.
doi: 10.1016/j.envint.2021.106415. Epub 2021 Mar 8.

Dietary patterns and PFAS plasma concentrations in childhood: Project Viva, USA

Shravanthi M Seshasayee  1 , Sheryl L Rifas-Shiman  2 , Jorge E Chavarro  3 , Jenny L Carwile  1 , Pi-I D Lin  2 , Antonia M Calafat  4 , Sharon K Sagiv  5 , Emily Oken  2 , Abby F Fleisch  6
Affiliations

Dietary patterns and PFAS plasma concentrations in childhood: Project Viva, USA

Shravanthi M Seshasayee et al. Environ Int. 2021 Jun.

Abstract

Background: Diet is thought to account for most adult human exposure to per- and polyfluoroalkyl substances (PFAS). Children are particularly vulnerable to adverse health effects of PFAS and may have different eating habits than adults. However, studies of dietary patterns and PFAS in children are limited.

Methods: We studied 548 Boston-area children with food frequency questionnaire data (89 food items) in early childhood (median age 3.3 years) and plasma concentrations of 6 PFAS quantified in mid-childhood (median age 7.7 years). We used univariate linear regression to examine associations between each food item and PFAS, accounting for multiple comparisons. We next used reduced rank regression (RRR) to estimate overall percent variation in PFAS explained by diet and identify dietary patterns most correlated with PFAS. All models were adjusted for race/ethnicity, maternal education, and household income.

Results: In univariate analyses, 2-(N-methyl-perfluorooctane sulfonamide) acetate (MeFOSAA) plasma concentrations were 17.8% (95% CI: 7.2, 29.5) and 17.0% (95% CI: 6.4, 28.7) higher per SD increment in intake of ice cream and soda, respectively. RRR identified 6 dietary patterns that together explained 18% variation in the plasma concentrations of the 6 PFAS, of which 50% was explained by a dietary pattern consisting of primarily packaged foods (including ice cream and soda) and fish. Children with higher intake of the packaged foods and fish dietary pattern had higher plasma concentrations of all PFAS, particularly MeFOSAA and PFOS.

Conclusions: Our analysis examined food intake in association with several PFAS in children and identified dietary determinants that may be sources of PFAS exposure or reflect correlated lifestyle or toxicokinetic factors. Further investigation may help inform measures to modify childhood PFAS exposure.

Keywords: Childhood; Diet; Dietary pattern; Perfluoroalkyl substances; Reduced rank regression.

PubMed Disclaimer

Conflict of interest statement

Competing Financial Interests: The authors declare they have no actual or potential competing financial interests.

Declaration of interests

The authors declare that they have no known competing financial interests or personal relationships that could have appeared to influence the work reported in this paper.

Figures

Figure 1.
Figure 1.
Food items with highest loadings onto dietary pattern 1 (frequently packaged foods and fish)a, b Abbreviation: PFAS – Per- and polyfluoroalkyl substances a Dietary pattern that explained the most variation in PFAS plasma concentrations in the reduced rank regression analysis b Food items with absolute model loadings in the top 25th percentile are shown
See this image and copyright information in PMC

References

    1. Averina M, Brox J, Huber S, Furberg A-S. 2018. Perfluoroalkyl substances in adolescents in northern Norway: Lifestyle and dietary predictors. The Tromsø study, Fit Futures 1. Environment International 114:123–130. - PubMed
    1. Barrera-Gomez J, Basagana X. 2015. Models with transformed variables: interpretation and software. Epidemiology 26:e16–17. - PubMed
    1. Begley TH, White K, Honigfort P, Twaroski ML, Neches R, Walker RA. 2005. Perfluorochemicals: potential sources of and migration from food packaging. Food Addit Contam 22:1023–1031. - PubMed
    1. Benjamini Y, Hochberg Y. 1995. Controlling the False Discovery Rate: A Practical and Powerful Approach to Multiple Testing. Journal of the Royal Statistical Society Series B (Methodological) 57:289–300.
    1. Blum RE, Wei EK, Rockett HR, Langeliers JD, Leppert J, Gardner JD, et al. 1999. Validation of a food frequency questionnaire in Native American and Caucasian children 1 to 5 years of age. Matern Child Health J 3:167–172. - PubMed

Publication types