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Low-level environmental lead exposure in childhood and adult intellectual function: a follow-up study

BACKGROUND: Early life lead exposure might be a risk factor for neurocognitive impairment in adulthood. OBJECTIVES: We sought to assess the relationship between early life environmental lead exposure and intellectual function in adulthood. We also attempted to identify which time period blood-lead c...

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Autores principales: Mazumdar, Maitreyi, Bellinger, David C, Gregas, Matthew, Abanilla, Kathleen, Bacic, Janine, Needleman, Herbert L
Formato: Texto
Lenguaje:English
Publicado: BioMed Central 2011
Materias:
Acceso en línea:https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC3072933/
https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/21450073
http://dx.doi.org/10.1186/1476-069X-10-24
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author Mazumdar, Maitreyi
Bellinger, David C
Gregas, Matthew
Abanilla, Kathleen
Bacic, Janine
Needleman, Herbert L
author_facet Mazumdar, Maitreyi
Bellinger, David C
Gregas, Matthew
Abanilla, Kathleen
Bacic, Janine
Needleman, Herbert L
author_sort Mazumdar, Maitreyi
collection PubMed
description BACKGROUND: Early life lead exposure might be a risk factor for neurocognitive impairment in adulthood. OBJECTIVES: We sought to assess the relationship between early life environmental lead exposure and intellectual function in adulthood. We also attempted to identify which time period blood-lead concentrations are most predictive of adult outcome. METHODS: We recruited adults in the Boston area who had participated as newborns and young children in a prospective cohort study that examined the relationship between lead exposure and childhood intellectual function. IQ was measured using the Wechsler Abbreviated Scale of Intelligence (WASI). The association between lead concentrations and IQ scores was examined using linear regression. RESULTS: Forty-three adults participated in neuropsychological testing. Childhood blood-lead concentration (mean of the blood-lead concentrations at ages 4 and 10 years) had the strongest relationship with Full-Scale IQ (β = -1.89 ± 0.70, p = 0.01). Full-scale IQ was also significantly related to blood-lead concentration at age 6 months (β = -1.66 ± 0.75, p = 0.03), 4 years (β = -0.90 ± 0.41, p = 0.03) and 10 years (β = -1.95 ± 0.80, p = 0.02). Adjusting for maternal IQ altered the significance of the regression coefficient. CONCLUSIONS: Our study suggests that lead exposure in childhood predicts intellectual functioning in young adulthood. Our results also suggest that school-age lead exposure may represent a period of increased susceptibility. Given the small sample size, however, the potentially confounding effects of maternal IQ cannot be excluded and should be evaluated in a larger study.
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spelling pubmed-30729332011-04-09 Low-level environmental lead exposure in childhood and adult intellectual function: a follow-up study Mazumdar, Maitreyi Bellinger, David C Gregas, Matthew Abanilla, Kathleen Bacic, Janine Needleman, Herbert L Environ Health Research BACKGROUND: Early life lead exposure might be a risk factor for neurocognitive impairment in adulthood. OBJECTIVES: We sought to assess the relationship between early life environmental lead exposure and intellectual function in adulthood. We also attempted to identify which time period blood-lead concentrations are most predictive of adult outcome. METHODS: We recruited adults in the Boston area who had participated as newborns and young children in a prospective cohort study that examined the relationship between lead exposure and childhood intellectual function. IQ was measured using the Wechsler Abbreviated Scale of Intelligence (WASI). The association between lead concentrations and IQ scores was examined using linear regression. RESULTS: Forty-three adults participated in neuropsychological testing. Childhood blood-lead concentration (mean of the blood-lead concentrations at ages 4 and 10 years) had the strongest relationship with Full-Scale IQ (β = -1.89 ± 0.70, p = 0.01). Full-scale IQ was also significantly related to blood-lead concentration at age 6 months (β = -1.66 ± 0.75, p = 0.03), 4 years (β = -0.90 ± 0.41, p = 0.03) and 10 years (β = -1.95 ± 0.80, p = 0.02). Adjusting for maternal IQ altered the significance of the regression coefficient. CONCLUSIONS: Our study suggests that lead exposure in childhood predicts intellectual functioning in young adulthood. Our results also suggest that school-age lead exposure may represent a period of increased susceptibility. Given the small sample size, however, the potentially confounding effects of maternal IQ cannot be excluded and should be evaluated in a larger study. BioMed Central 2011-03-30 /pmc/articles/PMC3072933/ /pubmed/21450073 http://dx.doi.org/10.1186/1476-069X-10-24 Text en Copyright ©2011 Mazumdar et al; licensee BioMed Central Ltd. http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/2.0 This is an Open Access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/2.0), which permits unrestricted use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original work is properly cited.
spellingShingle Research
Mazumdar, Maitreyi
Bellinger, David C
Gregas, Matthew
Abanilla, Kathleen
Bacic, Janine
Needleman, Herbert L
Low-level environmental lead exposure in childhood and adult intellectual function: a follow-up study
title Low-level environmental lead exposure in childhood and adult intellectual function: a follow-up study
title_full Low-level environmental lead exposure in childhood and adult intellectual function: a follow-up study
title_fullStr Low-level environmental lead exposure in childhood and adult intellectual function: a follow-up study
title_full_unstemmed Low-level environmental lead exposure in childhood and adult intellectual function: a follow-up study
title_short Low-level environmental lead exposure in childhood and adult intellectual function: a follow-up study
title_sort low-level environmental lead exposure in childhood and adult intellectual function: a follow-up study
topic Research
url https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC3072933/
https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/21450073
http://dx.doi.org/10.1186/1476-069X-10-24
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