Prenatal Exposure to Phthalates and Childhood Body Size in an Urban Cohort

Background:Phthalate exposures are hypothesized to increase obesity; however, prior research has been largely cross-sectional.Objective:We evaluated associations between prenatal phthalate exposures and body mass index (BMI) at child ages 5 and 7 years.Methods:Nine metabolites of six phthalates—di(2-ethylhexyl) phthalate (DEHP), di-n-octyl-, di-iso-butyl-, di-n-butyl-, butylbenzyl-, and diethyl phthalates—were measured in spot urine samples collected from pregnant African-American and Dominican women during their third trimester, and from their children at ages 3 and 5 years. To reduce multiple comparison issues, we initially used principal component analysis (PCA) to identify major patterns of natural log (ln)-transformed metabolite concentrations. Height and weight were assessed at ages 5 and 7 years, and fat mass and waist circumference at age 7. Linearized generalized estimating equation analyses related maternal component scores to child anthropometric outcomes at ages 5 (n = 326) and 7 (n = 330) yea...