Background: Prenatal exposure to endocrine-disrupting chemicals (EDCs) may induce weight gain and obesity in children, but the obesogenic effects of mixtures have not been studied.

Objective: We evaluated the associations between pre- and perinatal biomarker concentrations of 27 EDCs and child weight status at 7 years of age.

Methods: In pregnant women enrolled in a Spanish birth cohort study between 2004 and 2006, we measured the concentrations of 10 phthalate metabolites, bisphenol A, cadmium, arsenic, and lead in two maternal pregnancy urine samples; 6 organochlorine compounds in maternal pregnancy serum; mercury in cord blood; and 6 polybrominated diphenyl ether congeners in colostrum. Among 470 children at 7 years, body mass index (BMI) z -scores were calculated, and overweight was defined as BMI > 85th percentile. We estimated associations with EDCs in single-pollutant models and applied principal-component analysis (PCA) on the 27 pollutant concentrations.

Results: In single-pollutant models, HCB (hexachlorobenzene), βHCH (β-hexachlorocyclohexane), and polychlorinated biphenyl (PCB) congeners 138 and 180 were associated with increased child BMI z -scores; and HCB, βHCH, PCB-138, and DDE (dichlorodiphenyldichloroethylene) with overweight risk. PCA generated four factors that accounted for 43.4% of the total variance. The organochlorine factor was positively associated with BMI z -scores and with overweight (adjusted RR, tertile 3 vs. 1: 2.59; 95% CI: 1.19, 5.63), and these associations were robust to adjustment for other EDCs. Exposure in the second tertile of the phthalate factor was inversely associated with overweight.

Conclusions: Prenatal exposure to organochlorines was positively associated with overweight at age 7 years in our study population. Other EDCs exposures did not confound this association.

Citation: Agay-Shay K, Martinez D, Valvi D, Garcia-Esteban R, Basagaña X, Robinson O, Casas M, Sunyer J, Vrijheid M. 2015. Exposure to endocrine-disrupting chemicals during pregnancy and weight at 7 years of age: a multi-pollutant approach. Environ Health Perspect 123:1030–1037;  http://dx.doi.org/10.1289/ehp.1409049

Address correspondence to M. Vrijheid, Centre for Research in Environmental Epidemiology (CREAL), 88 Dr. Aiguader St., 08003 Barcelona, Spain. Telephone: 34 93 214 73 46. E-mail: mvrijheid@creal.cat

We particularly thank all the cohort participants for their generous collaboration.

This study was funded by grants from Instituto de Salud Carlos III (Red INMA G03/176, CB06/02/0041), Spanish Ministry of Health (FIS-PI12/01890, FIS-PI041436, FIS-PI081151), Generalitat de Catalunya (CIRIT 1999SGR 00241), and RecerCaixa (register number 2010ACUP00349). A full roster of the INMA Project Investigators can be found online ( http://www.proyectoinma.org ). The study was supported by a postdoctoral fellowship to K.A.-S. from the Environment and Health Fund (EHF, Israel).

The authors declare they have no actual or potential competing financial interests.

Received: 6 August 2014 Accepted: 6 May 2015 Advance Publication: 8 May 2015 Final Publication: 1 October 2015

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