Ministry of Education-Shanghai Key Laboratory of Children's Environmental Health, Xinhua Hospital, Shanghai Jiao Tong University School of Medicine, Shanghai, 200092, China.
School of Public Health, Shanghai Jiao Tong University, Shanghai, China.
Environ Sci Pollut Res Int. 2019 Mar;26(8):7665-7676. doi: 10.1007/s11356-018-04105-x. Epub 2019 Jan 21.
Exposure to environmental endocrine disruptors (EEDs) has been linked to adverse health outcomes. The vast majority of studies examined one class of EEDs at a time but humans often are exposed to multiple EEDs at the same time. It is, therefore, important to know the co-exposure status of multiple EEDs in an individual, to preclude and control for potential confounding effects posed by co-exposed EEDs. This study examined the concentrations of seven classes of EEDs in the US population utilizing the data from the National Health and Nutrition Examination Survey (NHANES), 2009-2014 survey cycles. We applied linear correlation and cluster analysis to characterize the correlation profile and cluster patterns of these EEDs. We found that EEDs with a similar structure are often highly correlated. Among between-class correlations, mercury and perfluoroalkyl substances (PFAS) and cadmium and polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbons (PAHs) were two significantly correlated EEDs. In epidemiologic studies, measurement and control for co-exposure to pollutants, especially those with similar biological effects, are critical when attempting to make causal inferences. Appropriate statistical methods to handle within- and between-class correlations are needed.
暴露于环境内分泌干扰物 (EEDs) 与不良健康结果有关。大多数研究一次只检查一类 EEDs,但人类通常同时暴露于多种 EEDs 中。因此,了解个体中多种 EEDs 的共同暴露状态对于排除和控制共同暴露的 EEDs 可能产生的混杂影响非常重要。本研究利用美国国家健康和营养检查调查(NHANES)2009-2014 调查周期的数据,研究了美国人群中七类 EEDs 的浓度。我们应用线性相关和聚类分析来描述这些 EEDs 的相关特征和聚类模式。我们发现,具有相似结构的 EEDs 通常高度相关。在类间相关性中,汞和全氟烷基物质 (PFAS) 以及镉和多环芳烃 (PAHs) 是两个显著相关的 EEDs。在流行病学研究中,当试图进行因果推断时,对污染物的共同暴露进行测量和控制非常重要,特别是对于具有相似生物学效应的污染物。需要使用适当的统计方法来处理类内和类间相关性。