Sex-specific associations of urinary concentrations of multiple emerging environmental contaminants with BMI z-scores in preschool children: A cross-sectional study

Le résumé fourni par la source

Background Previous studies have reported the effects of individual emerging contaminant (EC) exposure on body mass index (BMI) z-scores in childhood, whereas their combined effects under real-world exposure scenarios and potential sex-specific differences remain unclear. Objective To investigate the potential sex-specific associations between co-exposure to multiple ECs and BMI z-scores in preschool children. Methods We quantified urinary concentrations of 75 ECs in 511 preschool children recruited from Bao’an District, Shenzhen, South China, and measured their height and weight to calculate BMI z-scores. All analyses were restricted to ECs with detection frequencies > 80%. Multivariable regression was performed, and elastic net regression was used to screen ECs for mixture exposure analysis, which was then conducted using Bayesian kernel machine regression (BKMR) and quantile g-computation (QGC). Sex-stratified analyses and statistical interactions were conducted to assess potential sex-specific associations. Results Of the 36 ECs with detection frequencies > 80%, we observed significant associations of bisphenol E (BPE), bisphenol AF (BPAF), triclosan (TCS), benzophenone-2 (BP-2), and 2,6-di-tert-butyl-1,4-benzoquinone (BHT-Q) with elevated BMI z-scores in all children. Sex-stratified analyses showed consistently positive associations of BPE and TCS with BMI z-scores in boys but not significant in girls, with a significant interaction between BPE and sex ( p interaction = 0.007). The bisphenol F (BPF), BPAF, tetrachlorobisphenol A (TCBPA), and BP-2 were selected for subsequent mixture analyses by elastic net regression. Positive asssociations were observed between the mixture of these four ECs and BMI z-scores in all children or boys. Consistently, significantly positive relationship were observed in the QGC model for the overall population ( β = 0.190, 95% CI: 0.041–0.340), with TCBPA showing the greatest positive contribution (weight = 0.492), and for boys ( β = 0.247, 95% CI: 0.053–0.441), with BPF contributed most (weight = 0.451). Conclusion These findings indicate that combined exposure to BPF, BPAF, TCBPA, and BP-2 mixture contributed to elevated BMI z-scores in preschool children, primarily driven by TCBPA, and boys appear to be more susceptible, with BPF as the primary contributor.

Ce résumé expose les affirmations des auteurs. BNTIC ne l’interprète pas comme une validation indépendante des résultats.