Background: Several epidemiological studies suggest that prenatal exposure to BPA
may interfere with the neurodevelopment of pre-school and school-age children. However,
a limited number of studies are available for effects during children at a younger
age, especially in China.Methods: Based on Laizhou Wan Birth Cohort (LWBC), BPA concentrations
were measured in urine among 506 pregnant women during their hospital admission for
delivery and neurodevelopment of their children was assessed using the Gesell Development
Schedules at 12 months (n = 368) and 24 months (n = 296). Linear regression and generalized
linear models were used to analyze the association between prenatal BPA exposure and
the children's developmental quotient scores (DQs).Results: The median of maternal
BPA concentration was 0.48 mu g/L or 1.05 mu g/g creatinine. Maternal BPA concentrations
were adversely associated with children DQs at 12 months of age, with a 10-fold increase
in prenatal BPA concentrations correlated to 1.43-point decrease in DQs in the adaptive
domain (beta = -1.43; 95% CI: -2.30 to -0.56, p = 0.001). When stratified by gender,
prenatal BPA concentrations were adversely associated with the adaptive domain DQs
among boys (p-trend = 0.012) and girls (p-trend = 0.028) and the social domain DQs
(p-trend = 0.019) only among girls. At 24 months of age, the significant adverse association
was only found in the language domain among girls (beta = -1.69; 95% CI: -3.23 to
-0.15, p = 0.032).Conclusion: Based on a Chinese population, we found potential impacts
of prenatal BPA exposure on childhood neurodevelopment at 12 and 24 months of age,
especially among girls.
