Date of Award

1-1-2023

Language

English

Document Type

Master's Thesis

Degree Name

Master of Science (MS)

College/School/Department

Department of Epidemiology and Biostatistics

Content Description

1 online resource (iii, 32 pages) : illustrations (some color)

Dissertation/Thesis Chair

Erin M Bell

Committee Members

Temilayo Adeyeye

Keywords

Perfluorinated chemicals

Subject Categories

Epidemiology

Abstract

Background: Prenatal exposure to perfluoroalkyl substances (PFASs), a group of persistent environmental chemicals with endocrine disrupting abilities, has been associated with immunomodulation and may contribute to the etiology of asthma in young children. The need for research and additional prospective analysis clearly exists to measure the impact of the chemicals (PFAS) on child wheeze or asthma. We used newborn dried blood spots to quantify two PFAS and their associations with infant wheeze in the Upstate KIDS population.Methods: We measured, perfluoro octane - sulfonic acid (PFOS) and perfluorooctanoic acid (PFOA) in 2071 singleton and 1040 twin infants born to mothers in New York State (excluding New York City). Infant’s wheeze was reported by questionnaire every 4–6 months until 3 years of age. To examine the associations between chemicals and Infant’s wheeze we performed Generalized estimating equations with robust standard errors to account for the lack of independence given the inclusion of twins. All the models were adjusted for breast feeding, parity, and smoking in pregnancy identified by directed acyclic graph. Results: All the chemicals were quantified above the limits of detection (> 99%) and log transformed. 28% answered yes to wheeze in single or multiple reports. Overall, we observed no significant associations between PFASs and reported wheeze in infants (RR < 1). Also, no association was observed while investigating interaction of the chemicals with breast feeding. Conclusions: Our findings suggest there is no association between PFAS concentrations and infant wheeze. Our findings support the value of using DBSs for the quantification of neonatal exposure. More studies are warranted following the direct exposure measurement using DBSs in diverse populations.

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