Table 3.
Associations Between Umbilical Cord Serum Organochlorine Levels and Log-Transformed Scores on 4 Subscales of the Conners’ Rating Scale for Teachers (n = 573) Among Children Born in New Bedford, Massachusetts, 1993–1998
| No. of Subjects | Sum of 51 PCBs (0.40 ng/g, 0.14–1.30)b |
Sum of 4 PCBs (0.19 ng/g, 0.05–0.68) |
Toxic Equivalenta (0.004 ng/g, 0.001–0.019) |
p,p′-DDE (0.31 ng/g, 0.11–1.32) |
|||||
| β | 95% CI | β | 95% CI | β | 95% CI | β | 95% CI | ||
| Conners’ ADHD Index | |||||||||
| Unadjusted | 573 | 0.02 | 0.00, 0.03 | 0.01 | −0.04, 0.06 | 0.95 | −0.39, 2.29 | 0.00 | −0.01, 0.02 |
| Unadjusted 2c | 487 | 0.02 | 0.00, 0.03 | 0.02 | −0.03, 0.08 | 1.18 | −0.19, 2.54 | 0.00 | −0.01, 0.02 |
| Adjustedd | 487 | 0.03 | 0.01, 0.04 | 0.08 | 0.03, 0.13 | 2.38 | 1.05, 3.71 | 0.01 | 0.00, 0.03 |
| Change in scoree | 487 | 1.54 | 2.44 | 2.07 | 0.73 | ||||
| DSM-IV Inattentive | |||||||||
| Unadjusted | 573 | 0.01 | −0.01, 0.02 | −0.01 | −0.06, 0.04 | 0.37 | −0.95, 1.70 | 0.00 | −0.02, 0.01 |
| Unadjusted 2 | 521 | 0.01 | −0.01, 0.02 | 0.00 | −0.05, 0.05 | 0.53 | −0.79, 1.86 | 0.00 | −0.01, 0.02 |
| Adjusted | 521 | 0.01 | 0.00, 0.03 | 0.04 | −0.01, 0.09 | 1.17 | −0.11, 2.45 | 0.01 | −0.01, 0.02 |
| Change in score | 521 | 0.75 | 1.14 | 1.01 | 0.41 | ||||
| DSM-IV Hyperactive-Impulsive | |||||||||
| Unadjusted | 573 | 0.02 | 0.00, 0.03 | 0.03 | −0.02, 0.08 | 1.45 | 0.23, 2.67 | 0.01 | 0.00, 0.02 |
| Unadjusted 2 | 521 | 0.02 | 0.00, 0.03 | 0.04 | −0.01, 0.08 | 1.57 | 0.34, 2.79 | 0.01 | −0.01, 0.02 |
| Adjusted | 521 | 0.03 | 0.01, 0.04 | 0.08 | 0.03, 0.12 | 2.46 | 1.26, 3.66 | 0.02 | 0.00, 0.03 |
| Change in score | 521 | 1.49 | 2.37 | 2.08 | 0.91 | ||||
| DSM-IV Total | |||||||||
| Unadjusted | 573 | 0.01 | 0.00, 0.03 | 0.02 | −0.03, 0.06 | 1.08 | −0.17, 2.33 | 0.01 | −0.01, 0.02 |
| Unadjusted 2 | 521 | 0.01 | 0.00, 0.03 | 0.02 | −0.02, 0.07 | 1.21 | −0.04, 2.45 | 0.01 | −0.01, 0.02 |
| Adjusted | 521 | 0.02 | 0.01, 0.04 | 0.06 | 0.01, 0.11 | 1.98 | 0.79, 3.17 | 0.01 | 0.00, 0.03 |
| Change in score | 521 | 1.21 | 1.89 | 1.70 | 0.85 | ||||
Abbreviations: ADHD, attention deficit hyperactivity disorder; CI, confidence interval; p,p′-DDE, p,p′-dichlorodiphenyl dichloroethylene; DSM-IV, Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders, Fourth Edition; HOME, Home Observation for Measurement of the Environment; PCB(s), polychlorinated biphenyl(s).
Toxic equivalency factor-weighted sum of mono-ortho PCB congeners 105, 118, 156, 167, and 189, measured in ng/g lipid.
Median serum (or lipid) concentration, 5th–95th percentile range.
Unadjusted estimates in the subset of subjects with nonmissing covariate data.
Conners’ ADHD Index was adjusted for child's age and sex and for maternal age, marital status, smoking during pregnancy, alcohol consumption during pregnancy, local fish consumption during pregnancy, and illicit drug use. All DSM-IV outcomes were adjusted for child's age and sex and for maternal age, marital status, smoking during pregnancy, and HOME score.
Adjusted change in Conners' Rating Scale for Teachers T score from the 5th percentile of exposure to the 95th percentile, computed on the natural (non-log-transformed) scale at the reference level for categorical covariates and the median value for continuous covariates.