Prenatal phthalate exposure may stunt infant growth

Exposure to phthalates while still in the womb is associated with lower body mass index (BMI) z-scores in children, suggesting impaired growth, reports a recent meta-analysis. Prenatal exposure, on the other hand, does not seem to affect body fat percentage.

“Our findings suggest that phthalates disturb the normal muscle growth of children rather than induce obesity, as previous studies have hypothesized,” the researchers said.

Thirty-nine studies were deemed eligible for quantitative synthesis, including 17 cross-sectional and 22 longitudinal studies. Sample sizes ranged from 72 to 2,884 participants. In terms of quality, longitudinal studies were generally of good quality, while cross-sectional studies were of moderate to high quality. Studies were retrieved from the databases of PubMed, Embase, and Google Scholar.  

Pooled data from 10 studies showed that prenatal exposure to di-(2-ethylhexyl) phthalate (DEHP), (DEHP) correlated with a significantly lower BMI z-score index in the offspring (β, –0.05, 95 percent confidence interval [CI], –0.10 to –0.001). A similar result was reported for prenatal dibutyl phthalate (DBP) exposure, according to cumulative data from seven studies (β, –0.02, 95 percent CI, –0.10 to 0.06), though the effect failed to reach significance.

On the other hand, analyses for the impact of prenatal phthalate exposure on body fat percentage led to inconsistent results, with only few studies reporting statistical significance. Nevertheless, pooled analysis of sparse data showed that neither DEHP nor DBP exposure were significantly correlated with infant body fat percentage.