Socioeconomic adversity and risk of lead exposure is associated with brain and cognitive development in the Adolescent Brain Cognitive Development (ABCD) study
Year: 2019
Type: conference-abstract
Abstract: TPS 636: Metals and health 2, Johan Friso Foyer, Floor 1, August 28, 2019, 3:00 PM - 4:30 PM Childhood lead (Pb) exposure affects cognitive and behavioral development at the lowest measurable blood concentrations, but less is known about how Pb exposure impacts children’s brain development. Here, we assessed associations between the risk of Pb exposure and brain and cognitive development in typically developing children. We analyzed structural brain MRI data, neurocognitive test performance, and demographics (family income, race/ethnicity) to assess associations between the risk of Pb exposure and each outcome measure. Pb-risk (Pb-R) was determined by geocoding each participant’s home address with a publicly available census-tract-level map of Pb-R based on poverty levels and age of housing. We studied a demographically diverse cohort of ~11,000 9-10-year-old children in the Adolescent Brain Cognitive Development (ABCD) study, a nationwide longitudinal study of brain, behavioral, and cognitive development in adolescents in the United States. We found that Pb-R was closely associated with elevated blood Pb levels (EBLLs) rates across 12 different US states and 2 major US cities, suggesting that Pb-R is an effective proxy for BLLs in the absence of BLL data in the ABCD cohort. Then, we regressed ABCD data on Pb-R and found reductions in cognitive test performance, brain volume, cortical thickness, and cortical surface area with increased Pb-R, all of which were more pronounced in the lowest income participants relative to their middle- or high-income peers. Cognitive deficits were also more pronounced in high Pb-R Hispanic and black participants than in their high Pb-R Caucasian counterparts. Our findings suggest that estimates of risk of Pb exposure from publicly available geocoded maps may serve as a valid proxy for blood Pb levels, thereby providing opportunities to target children for Pb screening in high-risk areas around the United States, thereby reducing the negative impact of Pb exposure in populations that may otherwise have been overlooked.
Source: Environmental Epidemiology
Language: English
Subfield: Health, Toxicology and Mutagenesis
Field: Environmental Science
Domain: Physical Sciences
Open Access status: gold
Estimated APC paid: $1,200
OpenAlex ID: W2982043961