title: Does the home environment and the sex of the child modify the adverse effects of prenatal exposure to chlorpyrifos on child working memory?
abstract: Prenatal exposure to chlorpyrifos (CPF), an organophosphorus insecticide, has long been associated with delayed neurocognitive development and most recently with decrements in working memory at age 7. In the current paper, we expanded the previous work on CPF to investigate how additional biological and social environmental factors might create or explain differential neurodevelopmental susceptibility, focusing on main and moderating effects of the quality of the home environment (HOME) and child sex. We evaluate how the quality of the home environment (specifically, parental nurturance and environmental stimulation) and child sex interact with the adverse effects of prenatal CPF exposure on working memory at child age 7years. We did not observe a remediating effect of a high quality home environment (either parental nurturance or environmental stimulation) on the adverse effects of prenatal CPF exposure on working memory. However, we detected a borderline significant interaction between prenatal exposure to CPF and child sex (B (95% CI) for interaction term=-1.714 (-3.753 to 0.326)) suggesting males experience a greater decrement in working memory than females following prenatal CPF exposure. In addition, we detected a borderline interaction between parental nurturance and child sex (B (95% CI) for interaction term=1.490 (-0.518 to 3.499)) suggesting that, in terms of working memory, males benefit more from a nurturing environment than females. To our knowledge, this is the first investigation into factors that may inform an intervention strategy to reduce or reverse the cognitive deficits resulting from prenatal CPF exposure.
authors: Department of Epidemiology, Mailman School of Public Health, Columbia University, New York, NY 10032, United States. mh2180@columbia.edu
authors: Megan K
authors: MK
authors: Horton
authors: Linda G
authors: LG
authors: Kahn
authors: Frederica
authors: F
authors: Perera
authors: Dana Boyd
authors: DB
authors: Barr
authors: Virginia
authors: V
authors: Rauh
mesh_terms: D002648:Child; D004390:Chlorpyrifos / Q000097:blood / Q000633:toxicity*; D003071:Cognition / Q000187:drug effects; D015331:Cohort Studies; D005260:Female; D005312:Fetal Blood / Q000737:chemistry; D006801:Humans; D007306:Insecticides / Q000097:blood / Q000633:toxicity*; D008297:Male; D008570:Memory, Short-Term / Q000187:drug effects*; D016487:Parenting / Q000523:psychology; D011247:Pregnancy; D011297:Prenatal Exposure Delayed Effects / Q000139:chemically induced* / Q000523:psychology; D011446:Prospective Studies; D012044:Regression Analysis; D012727:Sex Characteristics; D012959:Socioeconomic Factors; D011795:Surveys and Questionnaires; D014505:Urban Population
chemical_list: D007306:Insecticides; D004390:Chlorpyrifos