Early prenatal exposure to bisphenol A was linked to diminished lung function at age 4 years and to persistent childhood wheezing, according to a birth cohort analysis reported online Oct. 6 in JAMA Pediatrics.
“If future studies confirm that prenatal BPA exposure may be a risk factor for impaired respiratory health, it may offer another avenue to prevent the development of asthma,” said Dr. Adam J. Spanier of the University of Maryland in Baltimore and his associates.
In the study, which enrolled 398 pairs of English-speaking mothers and infants in the Cincinnati area, every 10-fold increase in maternal urinary concentration of BPA at 16 weeks’ gestation led to a 4.27-fold rise in the odds of persistent wheezing in offspring (adjusted odds ratio, 4.27; 95% confidence interval, 1.37 to 13.30), the researchers reported. The findings “confirm and extend” the results for parent-reported wheezing from the same cohort at age 3 years, they said (JAMA Pediatr. 2014 Oct. 6 [doi:10.1001/jamapediatrics.2014.1397]). There also was an association of increasing mean maternal urinary BPA level with decreasing percent predicted forced expiratory volume at age 4 years. However, the effect on lung function was not seen for children aged 5 years.
© suriyasilsaksom/Thinkstock
Prenatal exposure to bisphenol A was linked to decreased lung function in 4-year-olds.
Another study reported a postnatal association of BPA exposure with asthma and wheezing in children, but did not find an association with prenatal BPA exposure. “Additional research is needed to clarify the contrasting findings in recent human studies,” Dr. Spanier and his associates wrote.
The study cohort did have worse lung function parameters than the reference sample of healthy children, the researchers said. Furthermore, minority, low-income families were more likely to drop out of the study than were higher-income white families.
The study was supported by a Flight Attendant Medical Research Foundation Young Clinical Scientist Award from the National Institute of Environmental Health Sciences. The authors reported having no relevant financial conflicts.