Table 2.
Unadjusted and adjusted odds ratios (OR [95%CI] per SD of mercury) between prenatal total blood mercury and the extreme levels of autistic traits are shown together with the results of separate analyses for children of mothers who did and those who did not eat fish during pregnancy
| Population | Autistic trait | |||
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Poor social cognition | Poor sociability | Poor coherence | Repetitive behavior | |
| All offspring | ||||
| Unadjusted | 0.96 [0.87, 1.06] | 0.83 [0.74, 0.93] | 0.96 [0.86, 1.07] | 0.94 [0.87, 1.02] |
| N (P) | 2331 (0.432) | 2898 (0.002) | 2249 (0.411) | 2528 (0.167) |
| Adjusted | 0.96 [0.85, 1.08] | 0.88 [0.77, 1.01] | 1.01 [0.89, 1.14] | 0.94 [0.86, 1.04] |
| N (P) | 1991 (0.459) | 2422 (0.073) | 1938 (0.912) | 2162 (0.234) |
| Mother ate fish | ||||
| Unadjusted | 0.95[0.84, 1.06] | 0.85 [0.75, 0.97] | 1.00 [0.89, 1.13] | 0.95 [0.86, 1.04] |
| N (P) | 1945 (0.355) | 2389 (0.015) | 1873 (0.985) | 2095 (0.228) |
| Adjusted | 0.92[0.80, 1.05]a | 0.89 [0.76, 1.03] | 1.04 [0.91, 1.19] | 0.93 [0.84, 1.03] |
| N (P) | 1744 (0.220) | 2104 (0.106) | 1698 (0.560) | 1884 (0.150) |
| Mother ate no fish | ||||
| Unadjusted | 1.26 [0.84, 1.87] | 0.64 [0.39, 1.05] | 0.96 [0.64, 1.45] | 1.22[0.90, 1.64] |
| N (P) | 285 (0.261) | 373 (0.079) | 273 (0.850) | 317 (0.197) |
| Adjusted | 1.63 [1.02, 2.62] b | 0.74 [0.41, 1.35] | 0.87 [0.51, 1.48] | 1.16 [0.81, 1.66] |
| N (P) | 240 (0.041) | 280 (0.327) | 231 (0.598) | 272 (0.425) |
All associations with P < 0.10 are italicized
aAdjusted for maternal age, parity, family adversity index, housing tenure, household crowding, life events, smoking in pregnancy, prenatal alcohol consumption, and whether child was breastfed
bSignificant interaction between adjusted results for offspring of fish and non-fish eaters