AI Article Synopsis
- Prenatal exposure to fluoride has been linked to negative effects on children's neurodevelopment, particularly affecting their IQ as they grow.
- The study analyzed maternal urinary fluoride levels during pregnancy and their correlation with children's cognitive abilities at ages 4, 5, and 6-12 using standardized intelligence tests.
- Results showed that higher fluoride levels were associated with significant decreases in overall IQ and non-verbal intelligence scores, suggesting a greater impact on visual-spatial and perceptual reasoning skills.
Article Abstract
Objective: Prenatal exposure to fluoride has been associated with adverse neurodevelopmental outcomes. However, the neuropsychological profile of fluoride's developmental neurotoxicity at low levels and the stability of this relationship across childhood has not been characterized. We investigated the longitudinal and domain specific effect of prenatal fluoride exposure on IQ among children ages 4, 5, and 6-12 years in the Early Life Exposures in Mexico to Environmental Toxicants (ELEMENT) cohort.
Methods: We measured the average of maternal urinary fluoride at each trimester of pregnancy adjusted for creatinine (MUF). Children were administered the McCarthy Scales of Children's Abilities at ages 4 (N = 386) and 5 (N = 308), and the Wechsler Abbreviated Scale of Intelligence at age 6-12 (N = 278). We used generalized estimating equation (GEE) models to estimate the population averaged effect of MUF concentration on longitudinal General Cognitive Index (GCI)/Full-Scale IQ (FSIQ), Verbal IQ (VIQ), and Performance IQ (PIQ) scores (N = 348). We tested for possible interactions between MUF and child sex as well as for MUF and time point on children's IQ. All models controlled for relevant available covariates.
Results: The mean/median MUF concentration was 0.90/0.83 mg/L (SD = 0.39; IQR, 0.64-1.11 mg/L). A 0.5 mg/L increase in MUF predicted an average 2.12-point decrease in GCI/FSIQ (95% CI: -3.49, -0.75) and 2.63-point decrease in PIQ (95% CI: -3.87, -1.40). MUF was marginally associated with VIQ across time (B = -1.29, 95% CI: -2.60, 0.01). No interactions between MUF and child sex or MUF and time were observed.
Conclusion: The negative association between prenatal fluoride exposure and longitudinal IQ was driven by decrements in non-verbal intelligence (i.e. PIQ), suggesting that visual-spatial and perceptual reasoning abilities may be more impacted by prenatal fluoride exposure as compared to verbal abilities.
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Source |
|---|---|
| http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC9890727 | PMC |
| http://dx.doi.org/10.1016/j.envres.2022.112993 | DOI Listing |
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