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Background: Exposure to air pollution during pregnancy may increase several behavior problems, including depression/anxiety or conduct/aggressive problems in children, but findings have been incons...

One of the main aims of the HEALS project is to unravel, through an exposomic approach, the development of metabolic diseases. The objective of the present study was to investigate the relationship between body burden from endocrine disrupting chemicals (EDCs) exposure (Holtcamp, 2012 ; La Merrill and Birnbaum, 2011) and the onset of overweight, obesity and diabetes, in view to promote preventive actions. Data was obtained from several pre-existing European cohorts (REPRO-PL, PI1, PI2, IMCA, SEASD, CCM, PHIME-CRO, PHIME-SI, G21, EPITeen, EDEN, CHISQ200 and MAAS). They were harmonised and cleaned to obtain a final dataset of 28, 608 individuals. To replace missing values, a multiple imputation methodology was used. The EWAS analysis employed a survey-weighted logistic regression method with a Bonferroni correction to adjust the probability values and counteract the problem of multiple comparisons. As dependent variables, the health outcomes considered were overweight (BMI>=25), obesity (BMI>=30) and type-2 diabetes mellitus. As independent variables, 70 environmental assays and other demographic factors, at different periods of life were included. Obesity was found to be positively and significantly associated with PM10 (OR=1.174, p-value=0.005), NO2 (1.276, 0.030), PCB118 (2.687, 0.026)), zinc (1.098, 0.021) and several class of phthalates like MEHP (1.095, 0.026). A negative association was observed for some stressors like brominated diphenyl ether BDE153 (0.980, 0.001) and cadmium (0.868, 0.001). Comparable results were obtained for overweight and diabetes. Our EWAS analyses confirm potential association between multiple environmental factors and overweight, obesity and diabetes. Whether mechanisms underlying metabolic changes depend on adipocyte proliferation and differentiation, glucose homeostasis, insulin release or behaviour (traffic pollution may also lead to less physical activities and sedentary lifestyle) needs to be further investigated.

Introduction: A growing body of literature documents associations between maternal stress in pregnancy and child development, but findings across studies are often inconsistent. The aim of this study was to estimate the association between exposure to different kinds of prenatal stress and child psychomotor development. Methods: The study population consisted of 372 mother-child pairs from Polish Mother and Child Cohort. The analysis was restricted to the women who worked at least one month during pregnancy period. Maternal psychological stress during pregnancy was assessed based on: the Subjective Work Characteristics Questionnaire, Perceived Stress Scale and Social Readjustment Rating Scale. The level of satisfaction with family functioning and support was evaluated by APGAR Family Scale. Child psychomotor development was assessed at the 12th and 24th months of age by Bayley Scales of Infant and Toddler Development. Results: Negative impact on child cognitive development at the age of two was observed f...

Introduction: The studies on the impact of selenium levels (Se) in different pregnancy periods on child psychomotor functions are limited. The aim of this study was to evaluate the impact of prenat...

Background: Phthalates are a family of industrial chemicals that have been used for a variety of purposes. As the potential consequences of human exposure to phthalates have raised concerns in the ...

Background and Aim: Environmental tobacco smoke exposure (ETS) is associated with poor pregnancy outcomes including increases risk of spontaneous abortion, stilbirth, preterm delivery, low birth we...

Background and Aims: Polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbons (PAH) are a group of compounds, comprising two or more fused aromatic rings, that are formed as a result of incomplete combustion of organic ma...