Prenatal Exposure to Phthalates and Cognitive Outcomes in Early Childhood in the Apron Cohort
Bibliographic record
Abstract
Background/Aim: Phthalates are ubiquitous endocrine disrupting chemicals. Previous research suggests an association between prenatal maternal phthalate levels and adverse behavioural outcomes in children. However, no studies have investigated the association between prenatal phthalate exposure levels and cognitive outcomes in children 3 to 4 years of age.Methods: Twelve urinary phthalate metabolites were measured in urine collected in the second trimester from 416 women enrolled in the Alberta Pregnancy Outcomes and Nutrition (APrON) Study. Cognitive outcomes (IQ) of the children of these women were assessed at 3 to 4 years of age using the Wechsler Preschool and Primary Scale of Intelligence – Fourth Edition (WPPSI-IV). Associations between prenatal phthalate concentrations and children’s cognitive outcomes were estimated using linear regression models.Results: Of the twelve urinary phthalate metabolites measured, eight metabolites showed statistically significant findings. After adjusting for gestational age, birth weight, maternal ethnicity, and maternal education, higher concentrations of both low molecular weight phthalate metabolites (miBP and mMP) and high molecular weight phthalate metabolites (mEHHP and mEHP) were associated with lower Full Scale IQ. Analyses of the WPPSI-IV subscales revealed that higher concentrations of the mBzP, mCOP, mECPP, and mNP metabolites were associated with lower scores on Working Memory, Fluid Reasoning, Visual Spatial and Verbal Comprehension subscales of the WPPSI-IV.Conclusions: Higher prenatal maternal urinary metabolite concentrations of both low and high molecular weight phthalates were associated with poorer cognitive outcomes in children at 3 to 4 years of age. As phthalate exposures are widespread in the Canadian environment, these findings are of public health significance.
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How this classification was reachedexpand
Full frame machine prediction
Teacher imitationNot calibrated prevalence, not ground truth. Human validation pending. The Gemma side is a direct model label for every work in the frame, read from the title-only record. The Codex side is a classifier learned from the 10,348 direct Codex labels and calibrated to design-weighted sample rates; fields without enough sample support carry no Codex call. Candidate is the union of the two sides; consensus is their intersection. These outputs are machine_predicted_unvalidated and are not human labels.
Distilled classifier scores by category (both heads)
| Category | Codex | Gemma |
|---|---|---|
| Metaresearch | 0.001 | 0.001 |
| Meta-epidemiology (narrow) | 0.001 | 0.000 |
| Meta-epidemiology (broad) | 0.000 | 0.000 |
| Bibliometrics | 0.001 | 0.001 |
| Science and technology studies | 0.001 | 0.000 |
| Scholarly communication | 0.001 | 0.000 |
| Open science | 0.001 | 0.001 |
| Research integrity | 0.000 | 0.001 |
| Insufficient payload (model declined to judge) | 0.002 | 0.000 |
Machine scores (provisional)
The two teacher heads of the student model, read on this work. A score orders the frame for review; it never asserts a category, and the validation status ships verbatim with every row.
Baseline scores from an immature model (maturity gate not passed, 7 training rounds). Scores rank; they never assert a category.
score_only:v0-immature-baseline · verbatim from the scoring run: score_only means the number may rank works, and no category label ships from itClassification
machine, unvalidatedMachine predicted; a candidate call from one source (direct Gemma or distilled Codex), not a consensus.
How this classification was reached, model by model and score by score, is at the end of the page under "How this classification was reached".