Prenatal PFAS tracked 5-year child overweight risk
In 412 Scandinavian mother–child pairs, higher maternal PFAS associated with higher child BMI and triceps skinfold z-scores and with overweight/obesity at age 5, with geographic differences.
Source
Prenatal exposure to persistent organic pollutants and child overweight/obesity at 5-year follow-up: a prospective cohort study
Study at a glance
- Design
- Cohort — Prospective Scandinavian SGA-study follow-up of maternal PFAS/POPs to age-5 adiposity
- N
- N=412 · 412 mother–child pairs from Norway and Sweden
- Population
- Scandinavian mother–child pairs in the NICHD SGA study
- Outcome
- Age-5 BMI, skinfolds, and overweight/obesity related to prenatal PFAS/POPs
Structured fields used in claim comparison tables when every cited study has a complete layer.
What they did
Authors followed NICHD Scandinavian SGA-study pairs from Norway and Sweden, measured maternal serum PFAS/POPs, and related them to age-5 BMI, skinfolds, and overweight/obesity (≥85th percentile), discussing possible non-monotonic dose responses.
What they found
55 of 412 children (12%) were overweight/obese at 5 years. Increasing maternal PFAS associated with higher BMI and triceps z-scores and overweight, but associations differed by country and concentration. Skinfolds were used because BMI misses fat-mass differences.
The limits
What it doesn't show
Oversampling of SGA births and country differences mean this is not a simple universal PFAS–obesity law; organochlorines were less consistent than PFAS in the authors’ conclusion.
Key terms
- Persistent organic pollutants (POPs)
- Long-lived chemicals including PFAS, PCBs, DDE, and HCB that cross the placenta.
- PFAS
- Perfluoroalkyl acids such as PFOA and PFOS measured in maternal serum.
- Skinfold thickness
- Caliper measure of subcutaneous fat, here subscapular and triceps z-scores.
- Non-monotonic dose response (NMDR)
- Effect that is not steadily up or down with dose—authors urge checking this for POPs.
- SGA oversampling
- The parent study oversampled small-for-gestational-age births, so the sample is not a simple population draw.
Flashcards
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Quiz yourself
Age-5 overweight/obesity:
Common questions
How many pairs?
412 mother–child pairs.
Age-5 overweight/obesity rate?
12% (55 children).
Which prenatal chemicals associated with child BMI?
Increasing maternal PFAS, with geographic caveats.
Why skinfolds?
Children with the same BMI can differ in fat mass.
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