Associations between urinary paraben levels and obesity of 10-year-old children

Sinan XU; Jiming Zhang; Yiming Dai; Zheng Wang; Lei Zhang; Jianqiu Guo; Xiaojuan QI; Xiuli Chang; Dasheng LU; Chunhua WU; Zhijun Zhou

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Associations between urinary paraben levels and obesity of 10-year-old children

VernacularTitle:10岁学龄儿童尿中对羟基苯甲酸酯浓度与肥胖的关系
Author: Sinan XU ¹ ; Jiming ZHANG ¹ ; Yiming DAI ¹ ; Zheng WANG ¹ ; Lei ZHANG ¹ ; Jianqiu GUO ¹ ; Xiaojuan QI ² ; Xiuli CHANG ¹ ; Dasheng LU ³ ; Chunhua WU ¹ ; Zhijun ZHOU ¹
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1. .
2. Zhejiang Provincial Center for Disease Control and Prevention, Hangzhou, Zhejiang 310051, China.
3. Shanghai Municipal Center for Disease Control and Prevention, Shanghai 200336, China.
Publication Type:Selectedarticle
Keywords: parabens; benzyl-paraben; exposure level; Bayesian kernel machine regression; childhood obesity
From: Journal of Environmental and Occupational Medicine 2023;40(7):782-787
CountryChina
Language:Chinese
Abstract: Background Parabens, a widely used class of preservatives, are suspected to be potential obesogens as emerging endocrine disrupting chemicals with reproductive and developmental toxicity. Objective To analyze five urinary parabens (PBs) and estimate the associations of exposure to PBs with adiposity measures in 10-year-old school-age children. Methods A total of 471 school-age children aged 10 years from the Sheyang Mini Birth Cohort were enrolled in this study. A questionnaire survey was conducted to collect socio-demographic information, physical activity, and dietary intake. Weight, height, and waist circumference of children were measured, and age- and sex-adjusted body mass index (BMI-Z score) was calculated. Spot urine samples were collected during the follow-up visits. Urinary concentrations of five PBs including methyl-paraben (MeP), ethyl-paraben (EtP), propyl-paraben (PrP), butyl-paraben (BuP), and benzyl-paraben (BzP) were detected by gas chromatography-tandem mass spectrometry (GC-MS/MS). Generalized linear models (GLMs) and Bayesian kernel machine regression (BKMR) models were applied to estimate associations of individual/overall urinary PBs concentrations with BMI Z-score and waist circumference. Results The positive rates of selected five urinary PBs were in the range from 78.98% to 98.94%. The urinary PBs concentrations (geometric mean) were in the range of 0.31-5.43 μg·L⁻¹. The children's BMI Z-score and waist circumference (mean ± standard deviation) were (0.56±1.40) and (67.62±10.07) cm respectively. The GLMs results showed that the urinary BzP concentration was negatively associated with waist circumference (b=−0.08, 95%CI: −0.14, −0.02; P=0.01). In sex-stratified analysis, the urinary concentration of BzP was negatively associated with BMI-Z score (b=−0.59, 95%CI: −0.88, −0.30; P<0.001) and waist circumference (b=−0.80, 95%CI: −1.23, −0.37; P<0.001) in boys, but not in girls. The BKMR results also found significant negative correlations of urinary BzP concentrations with BMI-Z score and waist circumference, which were consistent with the GLM results. Conclusion The selected 10-year-old children are extensively exposed to PBs in the study area. Furthermore, childhood PBs exposure may have potential impacts on childhood adiposity measures with sex-specific effects.