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Accessing Disadvantaged Pregnant Women in Houston, Texas, and Characterizing Biomarkers of Metal Exposure: A Feasibility Study

Communities of color or low socioeconomic status are disproportionately affected by metal exposure given spatial variability of the ambient levels of these contaminants. Despite this, there is little research characterizing metal concentrations in blood among disadvantaged populations in the U.S., e...

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Autores principales: Whitworth, Kristina W., Han, Inkyu, Afshar, Masoud, Mei, Yuan, Berens, Pamela D., Sharma, Shreela V., Symanski, Elaine
Formato: Online Artículo Texto
Lenguaje:English
Publicado: MDPI 2017
Materias:
Acceso en línea:https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC5451925/
https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/28468266
http://dx.doi.org/10.3390/ijerph14050474
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author Whitworth, Kristina W.
Han, Inkyu
Afshar, Masoud
Mei, Yuan
Berens, Pamela D.
Sharma, Shreela V.
Symanski, Elaine
author_facet Whitworth, Kristina W.
Han, Inkyu
Afshar, Masoud
Mei, Yuan
Berens, Pamela D.
Sharma, Shreela V.
Symanski, Elaine
author_sort Whitworth, Kristina W.
collection PubMed
description Communities of color or low socioeconomic status are disproportionately affected by metal exposure given spatial variability of the ambient levels of these contaminants. Despite this, there is little research characterizing metal concentrations in blood among disadvantaged populations in the U.S., especially among pregnant women who are particularly vulnerable and difficult to access. Thus, we conducted a pilot study among disadvantaged pregnant women in Houston, Texas to assess willingness to participate in key activities of an epidemiologic study and characterize exposures to 16 metals. Thirty-one women attending a Medicaid-serving prenatal clinic were included in this pilot study and completed an interviewer-administered questionnaire. We obtained and measured metal compounds in whole blood samples for 22 of these women during third-trimester prenatal visits. Median whole blood concentrations of Ni, As, Cd, and Pb were 27, 1.4, 0.6, and 6.3 µg/L, respectively. Most women were willing to participate in critical aspects of a research study, including wearing a personal air-sampling badge for 2–3 days (87.1%), receiving ultrasounds (83.9%), and providing blood draws (64.5%). Despite the small sample, our results provide evidence of women’s metal exposure and their willingness to participate in future research studies to elucidate exposure pathways and explore related health effects experienced among this population of disadvantaged pregnant women.
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spelling pubmed-54519252017-06-05 Accessing Disadvantaged Pregnant Women in Houston, Texas, and Characterizing Biomarkers of Metal Exposure: A Feasibility Study Whitworth, Kristina W. Han, Inkyu Afshar, Masoud Mei, Yuan Berens, Pamela D. Sharma, Shreela V. Symanski, Elaine Int J Environ Res Public Health Article Communities of color or low socioeconomic status are disproportionately affected by metal exposure given spatial variability of the ambient levels of these contaminants. Despite this, there is little research characterizing metal concentrations in blood among disadvantaged populations in the U.S., especially among pregnant women who are particularly vulnerable and difficult to access. Thus, we conducted a pilot study among disadvantaged pregnant women in Houston, Texas to assess willingness to participate in key activities of an epidemiologic study and characterize exposures to 16 metals. Thirty-one women attending a Medicaid-serving prenatal clinic were included in this pilot study and completed an interviewer-administered questionnaire. We obtained and measured metal compounds in whole blood samples for 22 of these women during third-trimester prenatal visits. Median whole blood concentrations of Ni, As, Cd, and Pb were 27, 1.4, 0.6, and 6.3 µg/L, respectively. Most women were willing to participate in critical aspects of a research study, including wearing a personal air-sampling badge for 2–3 days (87.1%), receiving ultrasounds (83.9%), and providing blood draws (64.5%). Despite the small sample, our results provide evidence of women’s metal exposure and their willingness to participate in future research studies to elucidate exposure pathways and explore related health effects experienced among this population of disadvantaged pregnant women. MDPI 2017-04-29 2017-05 /pmc/articles/PMC5451925/ /pubmed/28468266 http://dx.doi.org/10.3390/ijerph14050474 Text en © 2017 by the authors. Licensee MDPI, Basel, Switzerland. This article is an open access article distributed under the terms and conditions of the Creative Commons Attribution (CC BY) license (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/).
spellingShingle Article
Whitworth, Kristina W.
Han, Inkyu
Afshar, Masoud
Mei, Yuan
Berens, Pamela D.
Sharma, Shreela V.
Symanski, Elaine
Accessing Disadvantaged Pregnant Women in Houston, Texas, and Characterizing Biomarkers of Metal Exposure: A Feasibility Study
title Accessing Disadvantaged Pregnant Women in Houston, Texas, and Characterizing Biomarkers of Metal Exposure: A Feasibility Study
title_full Accessing Disadvantaged Pregnant Women in Houston, Texas, and Characterizing Biomarkers of Metal Exposure: A Feasibility Study
title_fullStr Accessing Disadvantaged Pregnant Women in Houston, Texas, and Characterizing Biomarkers of Metal Exposure: A Feasibility Study
title_full_unstemmed Accessing Disadvantaged Pregnant Women in Houston, Texas, and Characterizing Biomarkers of Metal Exposure: A Feasibility Study
title_short Accessing Disadvantaged Pregnant Women in Houston, Texas, and Characterizing Biomarkers of Metal Exposure: A Feasibility Study
title_sort accessing disadvantaged pregnant women in houston, texas, and characterizing biomarkers of metal exposure: a feasibility study
topic Article
url https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC5451925/
https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/28468266
http://dx.doi.org/10.3390/ijerph14050474
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