Associations of prenatal and early childhood mercury exposure with autistic behaviors at 5 years of age: the Mothers and Children's Environmental Health (MOCEH) study
- Authors
- Ryu, Jia; Ha, Eun-Hee; Kimb, Boong-Nyun; Ha, Mina; Kim, Yangho; Park, Hyesook; Hong, Yun-Chul; Kim, Kyoung Nam
- Issue Date
- Dec-2017
- Publisher
- ELSEVIER SCIENCE BV
- Keywords
- Autistic behavior; Birth cohort; Blood mercury; Early childhood exposure; Prenatal exposure
- Citation
- SCIENCE OF THE TOTAL ENVIRONMENT, v.605, pp.251 - 257
- Indexed
- SCIE
SCOPUS
- Journal Title
- SCIENCE OF THE TOTAL ENVIRONMENT
- Volume
- 605
- Start Page
- 251
- End Page
- 257
- URI
- https://scholarworks.bwise.kr/hanyang/handle/2021.sw.hanyang/192402
- DOI
- 10.1016/j.scitotenv.2017.06.227
- ISSN
- 0048-9697
- Abstract
- Background: Although mercury is an established neurotoxin, only few longitudinal studies have investigated the association between prenatal and early childhood mercury exposure and autistic behaviors.
Methods: We conducted a longitudinal cohort study using an ongoing prospective birth cohort initiated in 2006, wherein blood mercury levels were measured at early and late pregnancy; in cord blood; and at 2 and 3 years of age. We analyzed 458 mother-child pairs. Autistic behaviors were assessed using the Social Responsiveness Scale (SRS) at 5 years of age. Both continuous SRS T-scores and T-scores dichotomized by a score of >= 60 or < 60 were used as outcomes.
Results: The geometric mean of mercury concentrations in cord blood was 5.52 mu g/L. In adjusted models, a doubling of blood mercury levels at late pregnancy (beta= 1.84, 95% confidence interval [CI]: 0.39, 3.29), in cord blood (beta = 2.24, 95% CI: 0.22, 4.27), and at 2 years (beta = 2.12, 95% CI: 0.54, 3.70) and 3 years (beta = 2.80, 95% CI: 0.89, 4.72) of age was positively associated with the SRS T-scores. When the SRS T-scores were dichotomized, we observed positive associations with mercury levels at late pregnancy (relative risk [RR] = 1.31, 95% CI: 1.08, 1.60) and in cord blood (RR = 1.28, 95% CI: 1.01, 1.63).
Conclusion: We found that blood mercury levels at late pregnancy and early childhood were associated with more autistic behaviors in children at 5 years of age. Further study on the long-term effects of mercury exposure is recommended.
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