title: The Pregnancy Exposome: Multiple Environmental Exposures in the INMA-Sabadell Birth Cohort.
abstract: The "exposome" is defined as "the totality of human environmental exposures from conception onward, complementing the genome" and its holistic approach may advance understanding of disease etiology. We aimed to describe the correlation structure of the exposome during pregnancy to better understand the relationships between and within families of exposure and to develop analytical tools appropriate to exposome data. Estimates on 81 environmental exposures of current health concern were obtained for 728 women enrolled in The INMA (INfancia y Medio Ambiente) birth cohort, in Sabadell, Spain, using biomonitoring, geospatial modeling, remote sensors, and questionnaires. Pair-wise Pearson's and polychoric correlations were calculated and principal components were derived. The median absolute correlation across all exposures was 0.06 (5th-95th centiles, 0.01-0.54). There were strong levels of correlation within families of exposure (median = 0.45, 5th-95th centiles, 0.07-0.85). Nine exposures (11%) had a correlation higher than 0.5 with at least one exposure outside their exposure family. Effectively all the variance in the data set (99.5%) was explained by 40 principal components. Future exposome studies should interpret exposure effects in light of their correlations to other exposures. The weak to moderate correlation observed between exposure families will permit adjustment for confounding in future exposome studies.
authors.affiliation: Centre for Research in Environmental Epidemiology (CREAL) , Doctor Aiguader, 88, E-08003 Barcelona, Spain.|Universitat Pompeu Fabra (UPF) , Plaça de la Mercè, 10-12, 08002, Barcelona, Spain.|CIBER Epidemiología y Salud Pública (CIBERESP) , Casanova, 143, 5 Planta, 08036, Barcelona, Spain.
authors.forename: Oliver
authors.initials: O
authors.lastname: Robinson
authors.affiliation: Centre for Research in Environmental Epidemiology (CREAL) , Doctor Aiguader, 88, E-08003 Barcelona, Spain.|Universitat Pompeu Fabra (UPF) , Plaça de la Mercè, 10-12, 08002, Barcelona, Spain.|CIBER Epidemiología y Salud Pública (CIBERESP) , Casanova, 143, 5 Planta, 08036, Barcelona, Spain.
authors.forename: Xavier
authors.initials: X
authors.lastname: Basagaña
authors.affiliation: Team of Environmental Epidemiology Applied to Reproduction and Respiratory Health, Inserm and Univ. Grenoble-Alpes, U823 (IAB) Joint Research Center, Grenoble, France.
authors.forename: Lydiane
authors.initials: L
authors.lastname: Agier
authors.affiliation: Centre for Research in Environmental Epidemiology (CREAL) , Doctor Aiguader, 88, E-08003 Barcelona, Spain.|Universitat Pompeu Fabra (UPF) , Plaça de la Mercè, 10-12, 08002, Barcelona, Spain.|CIBER Epidemiología y Salud Pública (CIBERESP) , Casanova, 143, 5 Planta, 08036, Barcelona, Spain.
authors.forename: Montserrat
authors.initials: M
authors.lastname: de Castro
authors.affiliation: Centre for Research in Environmental Epidemiology (CREAL) , Doctor Aiguader, 88, E-08003 Barcelona, Spain.|Universitat Pompeu Fabra (UPF) , Plaça de la Mercè, 10-12, 08002, Barcelona, Spain.|CIBER Epidemiología y Salud Pública (CIBERESP) , Casanova, 143, 5 Planta, 08036, Barcelona, Spain.
authors.forename: Carles
authors.initials: C
authors.lastname: Hernandez-Ferrer
authors.affiliation: Centre for Research in Environmental Epidemiology (CREAL) , Doctor Aiguader, 88, E-08003 Barcelona, Spain.|Universitat Pompeu Fabra (UPF) , Plaça de la Mercè, 10-12, 08002, Barcelona, Spain.|CIBER Epidemiología y Salud Pública (CIBERESP) , Casanova, 143, 5 Planta, 08036, Barcelona, Spain.
authors.forename: Juan R
authors.initials: JR
authors.lastname: Gonzalez
authors.affiliation: Department of Environmental Chemistry, Institute of Environmental Assessment and Water Research , Jordi Girona 18-26, 08034, Barcelona, Spain.
authors.forename: Joan O
authors.initials: JO
authors.lastname: Grimalt
authors.affiliation: Centre for Research in Environmental Epidemiology (CREAL) , Doctor Aiguader, 88, E-08003 Barcelona, Spain.|Universitat Pompeu Fabra (UPF) , Plaça de la Mercè, 10-12, 08002, Barcelona, Spain.|CIBER Epidemiología y Salud Pública (CIBERESP) , Casanova, 143, 5 Planta, 08036, Barcelona, Spain.
authors.forename: Mark
authors.initials: M
authors.lastname: Nieuwenhuijsen
authors.affiliation: Centre for Research in Environmental Epidemiology (CREAL) , Doctor Aiguader, 88, E-08003 Barcelona, Spain.|Universitat Pompeu Fabra (UPF) , Plaça de la Mercè, 10-12, 08002, Barcelona, Spain.|CIBER Epidemiología y Salud Pública (CIBERESP) , Casanova, 143, 5 Planta, 08036, Barcelona, Spain.
authors.forename: Jordi
authors.initials: J
authors.lastname: Sunyer
authors.affiliation: Team of Environmental Epidemiology Applied to Reproduction and Respiratory Health, Inserm and Univ. Grenoble-Alpes, U823 (IAB) Joint Research Center, Grenoble, France.
authors.forename: Rémy
authors.initials: R
authors.lastname: Slama
authors.affiliation: Centre for Research in Environmental Epidemiology (CREAL) , Doctor Aiguader, 88, E-08003 Barcelona, Spain.|Universitat Pompeu Fabra (UPF) , Plaça de la Mercè, 10-12, 08002, Barcelona, Spain.|CIBER Epidemiología y Salud Pública (CIBERESP) , Casanova, 143, 5 Planta, 08036, Barcelona, Spain.
authors.forename: Martine
authors.initials: M
authors.lastname: Vrijheid
mesh_terms: D015331:Cohort Studies; D004781:Environmental Exposure / Q000032:analysis*; D005260:Female; D006801:Humans; D011247:Pregnancy; D025341:Principal Component Analysis; D013030:Spain