Prenatal bisphenol and phthalate exposure and blood pressure in childhood: an individual participant data meta-analysis (LIFECYCLE)

The endocrine-disrupting chemicals bisphenols and phthalates are widely used in the production of common consumer products, such as plastic bottles, thermal papers and food can coatings. Bisphenols and phthalates pass the placental barrier leading to direct fetal exposure. It has been hypothesized that fetal exposure to endocrine disrupting chemicals leads to developmental cardiovascular adaptations and predisposes individuals to cardiovascular disease in later life. Blood pressure is an important marker of cardiovascular health, and higher blood pressure in childhood has been associated with adverse cardiovascular outcomes in adulthood. Several studies investigated the association of maternal urinary concentrations of bisphenol A (BPA) and phthalate in pregnancy and childhood blood pressure , showing inconsistent and mostly sex-specific results. Those studies had samples sizes between 218 to 1046 mother-child pairs, varied widely in their timing and frequency of bisphenol and phthalate measurement in pregnancy, and performed childhood blood pressure measurements at different ages, ranging from 2 to 11 years. From an etiologic, epidemiologic and prevention perspective, further insight on the effect of fetal bisphenol and phthalate exposure on childhood blood pressure is therefore needed.
We aim to assess the associations between maternal phthalates and bisphenols urine concentrations during pregnancy and offspring blood pressure from age 2 to 18 years, in an individual participant data meta-analysis. We will use data from around 5000 participants from 9 ATHLETE pregnancy cohorts. The exposures are being harmonized within ATHLETE, the outcomes have already been harmonized within LifeCycle and we plan to do the analysis through DataShield.