Association between triclosan exposure and obesity measures among 7-year-old children in northern China

Yi Hu; Guodong Ding; Cheng Lv; Qianlong Zhang; Yan Zhang; Tao Yuan; Junjie Ao; Yu Gao; Yankai Xia; Xiaodan Yu; Ying Tian

doi:10.1016/j.ecoenv.2022.113610

Association between triclosan exposure and obesity measures among 7-year-old children in northern China

Ecotoxicol Environ Saf. 2022 Jul 1:239:113610. doi: 10.1016/j.ecoenv.2022.113610. Epub 2022 May 12.

Authors

Yi Hu¹, Guodong Ding², Cheng Lv³, Qianlong Zhang⁴, Yan Zhang³, Tao Yuan⁵, Junjie Ao⁴, Yu Gao³, Yankai Xia⁶, Xiaodan Yu⁷, Ying Tian⁸

Affiliations

¹ MOE and Shanghai Key Laboratory of Children's Environmental Health, Xin Hua Hospital Affiliated to Shanghai Jiao Tong University School of Medicine, Shanghai 200092, China; Center for Medical Bioinformatics, Shanghai Children's Hospital, Shanghai Jiao Tong University, Shanghai 200040, China.
² Department of Respiratory Medicine, Shanghai Children's Hospital, Shanghai Jiao Tong University, Shanghai 200040, China.
³ Department of Environmental Health, School of Public Health, Shanghai Jiao Tong University School of Medicine, Shanghai 200025, China.
⁴ MOE and Shanghai Key Laboratory of Children's Environmental Health, Xin Hua Hospital Affiliated to Shanghai Jiao Tong University School of Medicine, Shanghai 200092, China.
⁵ School of Environmental Science and Engineering, Shanghai Jiao Tong University, Shanghai 200240, China.
⁶ State Key Laboratory of Reproductive Medicine, Center for Global Health, School of Public Health, Nanjing Medical University, Nanjing 211166, China.
⁷ MOE and Shanghai Key Laboratory of Children's Environmental Health, Xin Hua Hospital Affiliated to Shanghai Jiao Tong University School of Medicine, Shanghai 200092, China; Department of Developmental and Behavioral Pediatrics, Shanghai Children's Medical Center, Shanghai Jiao Tong University School of Medicine, Shanghai 200127, China. Electronic address: xdyu1108@163.com.
⁸ MOE and Shanghai Key Laboratory of Children's Environmental Health, Xin Hua Hospital Affiliated to Shanghai Jiao Tong University School of Medicine, Shanghai 200092, China; Department of Environmental Health, School of Public Health, Shanghai Jiao Tong University School of Medicine, Shanghai 200025, China. Electronic address: tianmiejp@sjtu.edu.cn.

PMID: 35569301
DOI: 10.1016/j.ecoenv.2022.113610

Abstract

Background: Triclosan (TCS) is a widely used synthetic antibacterial compound with ubiquitous human exposure. Animal studies have suggested the obesogenic effect of TCS exposure, but knowledge regarding its impacts on childhood obesity was limited.

Objective: To investigate the associations of TCS exposure with childhood obesity in northern China.

Methods: This study included 423 children who participated in the 7-year-old follow-up visits of Laizhou Wan Birth Cohort in Shandong, northern China. Children's TCS exposure were determined in spot urine samples via high performance liquid chromatography-tandem mass. Their height, weight, waist circumference, body fat percentage, body mass index (BMI), and waist-to-height ratio (WHtR) were measured or calculated. BMI z-score ≥ 85th percentile was defined as overweight/obesity, and WHtR ≥ 0.5 was considered to be abdominal obesity. Multivariable linear regressions, generalized linear models (GLMs), and multivariable logistic regressions were performed to examine the associations between TCS exposure and obesity measures in children.

Results: Linear regressions showed that TCS concentrations, when treated as continuous variables, were positively associated with BMI z-score (β = 0.12, 95% CI: 0.01, 0.24) and body fat percentage (β = 0.82, 95% CI: 0.13, 1.52). When TCS concentrations were categorized as a four-level ordinal variable, the results of GLMs were similar those of continuous variables and both of the positive trends were significant (p-trend = 0.049 for BMI z-score; p-trend = 0.023 for body fat percentage). Moreover, the higher TCS levels versus reference group were associated with an approximate 2-3 fold increased risk of abdominal obesity (p-trend = 0.044).

Conclusion: Exposure to TCS was positively associated with obesity measures among 7-year-old children in northern, China. Given to the cross-sectional study design, a large prospective study is warranted to confirm our findings.

Keywords: Body fat percentage; Body mass index; Childhood obesity; China; Triclosan.

MeSH terms

Animals
Child
China / epidemiology
Cross-Sectional Studies
Humans
Obesity, Abdominal
Pediatric Obesity* / chemically induced
Pediatric Obesity* / epidemiology
Prospective Studies
Triclosan* / toxicity

Substances

Triclosan