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Association between level of urinary trace heavy metals and obesity among children aged 6–19 years: NHANES 1999–2011

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Abstract

Global prevalence of obesity has been increasing dramatically in all ages. Although traditional causes for obesity development have been studied widely, it is unclear whether environmental exposure of substances such as trace heavy metals affects obesity development among children and adolescents so far. Data from the National Health and Nutrition Examination Survey (1999–2011) were retrieved, and 6602 US children were analyzed in this study. Urinary level of nine trace heavy metals, including barium, cadmium, cobalt, cesium, molybdenum, lead, antimony, thallium, and tungsten, was analyzed for their association with the prevalence of obesity among children aged 6–19 years. Multiple logistic regression was performed to assess the associations adjusted for age, race/ethnicity, gender, urinary creatinine, PIR, serum cotinine, and television, video game, and computer usage. A remarkable association was found between barium exposure (OR 1.43; 95% CI 1.09–1.88; P < 0.001) and obesity in children aged 6–19 years. Negative association was observed between cadmium (OR 0.46; 95% CI 0.33–0.64; P < 0.001), cobalt (OR 0.56; 95% CI: 0.41–0.76; P < 0.001), and lead (OR 0.57; 95% CI 0.41–0.78; P = 0.018), and obesity. All the negative associations were stronger in the 6–12 years group than in the 13–19 years group. The present study demonstrated that barium might increase the occurrence of obesity, but cadmium, cobalt, and lead caused weight loss among children. The results imply that trace heavy metals may represent critical risk factors for the development of obesity, especially in the area that the state of metal contamination is serious.

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Acknowledgements

This work was supported by the National Natural Science Foundation of China (Grant Nos. 81270537, 81570574, and 81573174), the Outstanding Youth Fund of Jiangsu Province (SBK2014010296), the Research Project of Chinese Ministry of Education (213015A), the Priority Academic Program Development of Jiangsu Higher Education Institutions, the Flagship Major Development of Jiangsu Higher Education Institutions, and the Open Project Program of the State Key Laboratory of Environmental Chemistry and Ecotoxicology (KF2015-01).

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Center of Gallbladder Disease, Shanghai East Hospital, Tongji University School of Medicine, No. 150 Jimo Road, Shanghai, 201200, China

    Wentao Shao & Zhaoyan Jiang

  2. State Key Laboratory of Reproductive Medicine, Institute of Toxicology, Nanjing Medical University, No. 818 East Tianyuan Road, Nanjing, Jiangsu Province, 211166, China

    Wentao Shao, Qian Liu, Xiaowei He, Hui Liu & Aihua Gu

  3. Key Laboratory of Modern Toxicology of Ministry of Education, School of Public Health, Nanjing Medical University, No. 818 East Tianyuan Road, Nanjing, Jiangsu Province, 211166, China

    Wentao Shao, Qian Liu, Xiaowei He, Hui Liu & Aihua Gu

  4. No. 818 East Tianyuan Road, Nanjing, Jiangsu Province, 211166, China

    Aihua Gu

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  1. Wentao Shao
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Correspondence to Aihua Gu or Zhaoyan Jiang.

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Responsible editor: Philippe Garrigues

Wentao Shao, Qian Liu, and Xiaowei He contributed equally to this work.

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Shao, W., Liu, Q., He, X. et al. Association between level of urinary trace heavy metals and obesity among children aged 6–19 years: NHANES 1999–2011. Environ Sci Pollut Res 24, 11573–11581 (2017). https://doi.org/10.1007/s11356-017-8803-1

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