Prenatal arsenic exposure and drowning among children in Bangladesh.
There is increasing concern regarding adverse effects of prenatal arsenic exposure on the neurodevelopment of children. We analyzed mortality data for children, who were born to 11,414 pregnant women between 2002 and 2004, with an average age of 5 years of follow-up. Individual drinking-water arsenic exposure during pregnancy was calculated using tubewell water arsenic concentration between last menstrual period and date of birth. There were 84 drowning deaths registered, with cause of death ascertained using verbal autopsy (International Classification of Diseases, 10th revision, codes X65-X70). The prenatal water arsenic exposure distribution was tertiled, and the risk of drowning mortality was estimated by Cox proportional hazard models, adjusted for potential confounders. We observed a significant association between prenatal arsenic exposure and drowning in children aged 1-5 years in the highest exposure tertile (HR=1.74, 95% CI: 1.03-2.94). This study showed that in utero arsenic exposure might be associated with excess mortality among children aged 1-5 years due to drowning.
Research and Evaluation Division, BRAC, Dhaka, Bangladesh; mahfuzar.rahman@brac.net.
Mahfuzar
M
Rahman
Department of Epidemiology and Biostatistics, McMaster University, Hamilton, Ontario, Canada.
Nazmul
N
Sohel
icddr,b, Dhaka, Bangladesh.
Samar Kumar
SK
Hore
icddr,b, Dhaka, Bangladesh.
Mohammad
M
Yunus
icddr,b, Dhaka, Bangladesh.
Abbas
A
Bhuiya
icddr,b, Dhaka, Bangladesh.
Peter Kim
PK
Streatfield
D000328:Adult; D001151:Arsenic / Q000009:adverse effects* / Q000032:analysis; D001459:Bangladesh / Q000453:epidemiology; D002648:Child; D000067576:Child Health; D002675:Child, Preschool; D060766:Drinking Water / Q000737:chemistry*; D004332:Drowning / Q000453:epidemiology / Q000401:mortality*; D004781:Environmental Exposure / Q000009:adverse effects*; D005260:Female; D014943:Global Health; D006801:Humans; D008297:Male; D011247:Pregnancy; D011297:Prenatal Exposure Delayed Effects; D016016:Proportional Hazards Models; D055815:Young Adult
D060766:Drinking Water; D001151:Arsenic
arsenic; child health; drinking water; environment; exposure; millennium development goal; mortality; prospective study; water and health