In a nationally representative sample of nearly 3,000 children and adolescents, those with higher concentrations of urinary bisphenol A had significantly increased odds of being obese, according to a study.
In background information for the study, which appears in the Sept. 19 issue of JAMA, researchers noted that 92.6% of U.S. residents ages 6 and older were identified in the 2003-04 National Health and Nutrition Examination Survey as having detectable BPA levels in their urine. Previous data has suggested dietary sources constitute 99% of BPA exposure in preschool-aged children.
"In experimental studies, BPA exposure has been shown to disrupt multiple metabolic mechanisms, suggesting that it may increase body mass in environmentally relevant doses and therefore contribute to obesity in humans," although evidence of a link has been lacking, the researchers wrote.
Leonardo Trasande, MD, MPP, of the New York University School of Medicine in New York City, and colleagues conducted a study to examine the association between urinary BPA concentrations and body mass in children. The study consisted of a cross-sectional analysis of a nationally representative sub-sample of 2,838 participants, ages 6 through 19, randomly selected for measurement of urinary BPA concentration in the 2003-2008 National Health and Nutrition Examination Surveys.
The median urinary BPA concentration for participants in the study was 2.8 nanograms per milliliter. The prevalence of obesity was 17.8% and the prevalence of overweight was 34.1%. The researchers divided the BPA concentrations of the participants into quartiles.
Controlling for race/ethnicity, age, caregiver education, poverty to income ratio, sex, serum cotinine level, caloric intake, television watching and urinary creatinine level, children in the lowest urinary BPA quartile had a lower estimated prevalence of obesity (10.3%) than those in quartiles 2 (20.1%), 3 (19%) and 4 (22.3%). Compared with the first quartile, participants in the third quartile had approximately twice the odds for obesity. Participants in the fourth quartile had a 2.6-times higher odds of obesity.
Further analyses showed this association to be statistically significant only in white children and adolescents. The researchers also found that obesity was not associated with exposure to other environmental phenols commonly used in other consumer products, such as sunscreens and soaps.
"To our knowledge, this is the first report of an association of an environmental chemical exposure with childhood obesity in a nationally representative sample," the authors wrote.
The researchers pointed out that advocates and policymakers long have been concerned about BPA exposure. "We note the recent FDA ban of BPA in baby bottles and sippy cups, yet our findings raise questions about exposure to BPA in consumer products used by older children," the researchers wrote. "Last year, the FDA declined to ban BPA in aluminum cans and other food packaging, announcing 'reasonable steps to reduce human exposure to BPA in the human food supply’ and noting that it will continue to consider evidence on the safety of the chemical.
"Carefully conducted longitudinal studies that assess the associations identified here will yield evidence many years into the future."
The study abstract is available at http://jama.jamanetwork.com/article.aspx?articleid=1360865.
In background information for the study, which appears in the Sept. 19 issue of JAMA, researchers noted that 92.6% of U.S. residents ages 6 and older were identified in the 2003-04 National Health and Nutrition Examination Survey as having detectable BPA levels in their urine. Previous data has suggested dietary sources constitute 99% of BPA exposure in preschool-aged children.
"In experimental studies, BPA exposure has been shown to disrupt multiple metabolic mechanisms, suggesting that it may increase body mass in environmentally relevant doses and therefore contribute to obesity in humans," although evidence of a link has been lacking, the researchers wrote.
Leonardo Trasande, MD, MPP, of the New York University School of Medicine in New York City, and colleagues conducted a study to examine the association between urinary BPA concentrations and body mass in children. The study consisted of a cross-sectional analysis of a nationally representative sub-sample of 2,838 participants, ages 6 through 19, randomly selected for measurement of urinary BPA concentration in the 2003-2008 National Health and Nutrition Examination Surveys.
The median urinary BPA concentration for participants in the study was 2.8 nanograms per milliliter. The prevalence of obesity was 17.8% and the prevalence of overweight was 34.1%. The researchers divided the BPA concentrations of the participants into quartiles.
Controlling for race/ethnicity, age, caregiver education, poverty to income ratio, sex, serum cotinine level, caloric intake, television watching and urinary creatinine level, children in the lowest urinary BPA quartile had a lower estimated prevalence of obesity (10.3%) than those in quartiles 2 (20.1%), 3 (19%) and 4 (22.3%). Compared with the first quartile, participants in the third quartile had approximately twice the odds for obesity. Participants in the fourth quartile had a 2.6-times higher odds of obesity.
Further analyses showed this association to be statistically significant only in white children and adolescents. The researchers also found that obesity was not associated with exposure to other environmental phenols commonly used in other consumer products, such as sunscreens and soaps.
"To our knowledge, this is the first report of an association of an environmental chemical exposure with childhood obesity in a nationally representative sample," the authors wrote.
The researchers pointed out that advocates and policymakers long have been concerned about BPA exposure. "We note the recent FDA ban of BPA in baby bottles and sippy cups, yet our findings raise questions about exposure to BPA in consumer products used by older children," the researchers wrote. "Last year, the FDA declined to ban BPA in aluminum cans and other food packaging, announcing 'reasonable steps to reduce human exposure to BPA in the human food supply’ and noting that it will continue to consider evidence on the safety of the chemical.
"Carefully conducted longitudinal studies that assess the associations identified here will yield evidence many years into the future."
The study abstract is available at http://jama.jamanetwork.com/article.aspx?articleid=1360865.
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