Prenatal Urinary Polycyclic Aromatic Hydrocarbon (Pah) Exposure and Childhood Asthma in a Longitudinal Multi-Cohort Study

32 Pages Posted: 7 May 2022

See all articles by Christine Loftus

Christine Loftus

University of Washington

Adam A. Szpiro

University of Washington

Tomomi Workman

affiliation not provided to SSRN

Erin R. Wallace

University of Washington

Marnie F. Hazlehurst

University of Washington

Drew B. Day

Seattle Children’s Research Institute

Yu Ni

University of Washington

Kecia N. Carroll

Mount Sinai Health System - Icahn School of Medicine

Margaret A. Adgent

affiliation not provided to SSRN

Paul E. Moore

affiliation not provided to SSRN

Emily S. Barrett

Rutgers, The State University of New Jersey - Rutgers School of Public Health

Ruby HN Nguyen

University of Minnesota - Twin Cities

Kurunthachalam Kannan

New York University (NYU) - Grossman School of Medicine

Morgan Robinson

New York University (NYU) - Grossman School of Medicine

Erin E. Masterson

University of Washington

Frances A. Tylavsky

affiliation not provided to SSRN

Nicole R. Bush

University of California, San Francisco (UCSF)

Kaja Z. LeWinn

University of California, San Francisco (UCSF)

Sheela Sathyanarayana

University of Washington

Catherine J. Karr

University of Washington

Abstract

BackgroundPrenatal exposure to polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbons (PAH) may increase risk of pediatric asthma, but existing human studies are limited.ObjectivesWe estimated associations between prenatal PAHs and pediatric asthma in a diverse US sample and evaluated effect modification by child sex, maternal asthma, and prenatal vitamin D status.MethodsWe pooled two prospective pregnancy cohorts in the ECHO PATHWAYS Consortium, CANDLE and TIDES, for an analytic sample of N=1296 mother-child dyads. Mono-hydroxylated PAH metabolites (OH-PAHs) were measured in mid-pregnancy urine. Mothers completed the International Study on Allergies and Asthma in Childhood survey at child age 4-6 years. Poisson regression with robust standard errors was used to estimate relative risk of current wheeze, current asthma, ever asthma, and strict asthma associated with each metabolite, adjusted for potential confounders. We used interaction models to assess effect modification. We explored associations between OH-PAH mixtures and outcomes using logistic regression weighted quantile sum regression augmented by a permutation test to control Type 1 errors.ResultsThe sociodemographically diverse sample spanned five cities. Mean (SD) child age at assessment was 4.4 (0.4) years. While there was little evidence that either individual OH-PAHs or mixtures were associated with outcomes, we observed effect modification by child sex for most pairs of OH-PAHs and outcomes, with adverse associations specific to females. For example, a 2-fold increase in 2-hydroxy-phenanthrene was associated with current asthma in females but not males (RRfemale = 1.29 [95% CI: 1.09, 1.52], RRmale = 0.95 [95% CI: 0.79, 1.13]; pinteraction = 0.004). There was no consistent evidence of modification by vitamin D status or maternal asthma.DiscussionThis analysis, the largest cohort study of prenatal PAH and childhood asthma to date, suggests adverse associations for females only. Findings are consistent with hypothesized endocrine disruption properties of PAHs, which may lead to sexually dimorphic effects.

Keywords: Pediatric asthma, airway, endocrine disruption, polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbons, mixtures

Suggested Citation

Loftus, Christine and Szpiro, Adam A. and Workman, Tomomi and Wallace, Erin R. and Hazlehurst, Marnie F. and Day, Drew B. and Ni, Yu and Carroll, Kecia N. and Adgent, Margaret A. and Moore, Paul E. and Barrett, Emily S. and Nguyen, Ruby HN and Kannan, Kurunthachalam and Robinson, Morgan and Masterson, Erin E. and Tylavsky, Frances A. and Bush, Nicole R. and LeWinn, Kaja Z. and Sathyanarayana, Sheela and Karr, Catherine J., Prenatal Urinary Polycyclic Aromatic Hydrocarbon (Pah) Exposure and Childhood Asthma in a Longitudinal Multi-Cohort Study. Available at SSRN: https://ssrn.com/abstract=4102800 or http://dx.doi.org/10.2139/ssrn.4102800

Christine Loftus (Contact Author)

University of Washington ( email )

Seattle, WA 98195
United States

Adam A. Szpiro

University of Washington ( email )

Seattle, WA 98195
United States

Tomomi Workman

affiliation not provided to SSRN ( email )

No Address Available

Erin R. Wallace

University of Washington ( email )

Seattle, WA 98195
United States

Marnie F. Hazlehurst

University of Washington ( email )

Seattle, WA 98195
United States

Drew B. Day

Seattle Children’s Research Institute ( email )

Yu Ni

University of Washington ( email )

Seattle, WA 98195
United States

Kecia N. Carroll

Mount Sinai Health System - Icahn School of Medicine ( email )

Margaret A. Adgent

affiliation not provided to SSRN ( email )

No Address Available

Paul E. Moore

affiliation not provided to SSRN ( email )

No Address Available

Emily S. Barrett

Rutgers, The State University of New Jersey - Rutgers School of Public Health ( email )

Newark, NJ
United States

Ruby HN Nguyen

University of Minnesota - Twin Cities ( email )

Kurunthachalam Kannan

New York University (NYU) - Grossman School of Medicine ( email )

Morgan Robinson

New York University (NYU) - Grossman School of Medicine ( email )

Erin E. Masterson

University of Washington ( email )

Seattle, WA 98195
United States

Frances A. Tylavsky

affiliation not provided to SSRN ( email )

No Address Available

Nicole R. Bush

University of California, San Francisco (UCSF) ( email )

San Francisco, CA CA
United States

Kaja Z. LeWinn

University of California, San Francisco (UCSF) ( email )

San Francisco, CA CA
United States

Sheela Sathyanarayana

University of Washington ( email )

Catherine J. Karr

University of Washington ( email )

Seattle, WA 98195
United States

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