Background: Evidence suggests that endocrine disrupting chemicals (EDCs) may perturb the hypothalamic-pituitary-adrenocortical (HPA) axis, which has a major role in brain development. We aimed to evaluate the effects of childhood exposure to organophosphate pesticides, phenols, and phthalate metabolites, on urinary glucocorticosteroids and inattention in childhood.
Methods: We used data from the Human Early-Life Exposome (HELIX) cohort (2013-2016) and the parametric g-formula to estimate associations between EDCs, glucocorticosteroids, and hit reaction time standard error (HRT-SE), a measure of inattention, and tested for possible effect modification by sex.
Results: We observed a positive marginal contrast (MC) for exposure increases from the 10th to the 90th percentile for methyl-paraben (MC: 0.042 and confidence interval (CI): (0.013, 0.071)), and the phthalate metabolites oxo-MiNP (MC: 0.023 and CI: (0.003, 0.044)), oh-MiNP (MC: 0.039 and CI: (0.001, 0.076)), and MEHP (MC: 0.036 and CI: (0.008, 0.063)), on HRT-SE, indicating lower attention. Several EDCs were also associated with a positive MC for cortisone, cortisol, and corticosterone production. Increased levels of the glucocorticosteroids were not associated with HRT-SE, although we found a possible effect modification by sex.
Conclusions: Our results suggest that multiple EDCs might interfere with inattention and with the homeostasis of the HPA axis.
Keywords: Causality; Cortisone; Endocrine Disruptors; Hydrocortisone; Neuropsychological Tests.
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