The INMA INfancia y Medio Ambiente-(Environment and Childhood) project: More than 10 years contributing to environmental and neuropsychological research
Background: In 2003 the INMA—INfancia y Medio Ambiente (Environment and Childhood) project, a Spanish national network of birth cohorts including more than 3500 participants, was set up with the aim to assess the health impacts of pre- and postnatal environmental exposures on children. The project has published more than 60 papers on maternal and environmental factors related to neuropsychological development in children, one of the main research interests within the project. With the present review, we evaluate the evidence provided by the INMA project on this topic and discuss how the data can contribute to cover the challenges that children’s environmental health research will face in th…
Maternal Iodine Status During Pregnancy Is Not Consistently Associated with Attention-Deficit Hyperactivity Disorder or Autistic Traits in Children
Background: Severe iodine deficiency during pregnancy can cause intellectual disability, presumably through inadequate placental transfer of maternal thyroid hormone to the fetus. The association between mild-to-moderate iodine deficiency and child neurodevelopmental problems is not well understood. Objectives: We investigated the association of maternal iodine status during pregnancy with child attention-deficit hyperactivity disorder (ADHD) and autistic traits. Methods: This was a collaborative study of 3 population-based birth cohorts: Generation R (n = 1634), INfancia y Medio Ambiente (n = 1293), and the Avon Longitudinal Study of Parents and Children (n = 2619). Exclusion criteria were…
Prenatal exposure to organochlorine compounds and neuropsychological development up to two years of life
Polychlorinated biphenyls (PCB), hexachlorobenzene (HCB), and dichlorodiphenyl dichloroethylene (pp′DDE) are persistent, bioaccumulative, and toxic environmental pollutants with potential neurotoxic effects. Despite a growing body of studies investigating the health effects associated with these compounds, their specific effects on early neuropsychological development remain unclear. We investigated such neuropsychological effects in a population-based birth cohort based in three regions in Spain (Sabadell, Gipuzkoa, and Valencia) derived from the INMA [Environment and Childhood] Project. The main analyses in this report were based on 1391 mother–child pairs with complete information on mat…