Dataset Information

Mobile phone use, blood lead levels, and attention deficit hyperactivity symptoms in children: a longitudinal study.

ABSTRACT:

Background

Concerns have developed for the possible negative health effects of radiofrequency electromagnetic field (RF-EMF) exposure to children's brains. The purpose of this longitudinal study was to investigate the association between mobile phone use and symptoms of Attention Deficit Hyperactivity Disorder (ADHD) considering the modifying effect of lead exposure.

Methods

A total of 2,422 children at 27 elementary schools in 10 Korean cities were examined and followed up 2 years later. Parents or guardians were administered a questionnaire including the Korean version of the ADHD rating scale and questions about mobile phone use, as well as socio-demographic factors. The ADHD symptom risk for mobile phone use was estimated at two time points using logistic regression and combined over 2 years using the generalized estimating equation model with repeatedly measured variables of mobile phone use, blood lead, and ADHD symptoms, adjusted for covariates.

Results

The ADHD symptom risk associated with mobile phone use for voice calls but the association was limited to children exposed to relatively high lead.

Conclusions

The results suggest that simultaneous exposure to lead and RF from mobile phone use was associated with increased ADHD symptom risk, although possible reverse causality could not be ruled out.

SUBMITTER: Byun YH

PROVIDER: S-EPMC3605379 | biostudies-literature | 2013

REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature

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Publications

Mobile phone use, blood lead levels, and attention deficit hyperactivity symptoms in children: a longitudinal study.

Byun Yoon-Hwan YH Ha Mina M Kwon Ho-Jang HJ Hong Yun-Chul YC Leem Jong-Han JH Sakong Joon J Kim Su Young SY Lee Chul Gab CG Kang Dongmug D Choi Hyung-Do HD Kim Nam N

PloS one 20130321 3

<h4>Background</h4>Concerns have developed for the possible negative health effects of radiofrequency electromagnetic field (RF-EMF) exposure to children's brains. The purpose of this longitudinal study was to investigate the association between mobile phone use and symptoms of Attention Deficit Hyperactivity Disorder (ADHD) considering the modifying effect of lead exposure.<h4>Methods</h4>A total of 2,422 children at 27 elementary schools in 10 Korean cities were examined and followed up 2 year ...[more]

PMID: 23555766

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Project description:BackgroundPrevious studies suggest that blood lead levels are positively associated with attention deficit/hyperactivity disorder (ADHD) and ADHD-symptoms in children. However, the associations between lead exposure and ADHD subtypes are inconsistent and understudied.ObjectiveThe objective of this study was to explore the association of low-level concurrent lead exposure with subtypes of ADHD symptoms in 578 Mexican children 6-13 years of age.MethodsWe measured concurrent blood lead levels using inductively coupled plasma mass spectrometry (ICPMS). We administered the Conners' Rating Scales-Revised (CRS-R) to mothers to evaluate their children's ADHD symptoms. We used imputation to fill missing values in blood lead levels and used segmented regression models adjusted for relevant covariates to model the nonlinear relationship between blood lead and ADHD symptoms.ResultsMean ± SD blood lead levels were 3.4 ± 2.9 μg/dL. In adjusted models, a 1-μg/dL increase in blood lead was positively associated with Hyperactivity and Restless-Impulsivity scores on the CRS-R scale and Hyperactivity-Impulsivity scores on the CRS-R scale of the Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders, 4th Edition, but only in children with blood lead level ≤ 5 μg/dL. Blood lead was not associated with Inattentive symptoms or overall ADHD behavior.ConclusionsIn this population of Mexican children, current blood lead level among children with low exposure (≤ 5 μg/dL) was positively associated with hyperactive/impulsive behaviors, but not with inattentiveness. These results add to the existing evidence of lead-associated neurodevelopmental deficits at low levels of exposure.CitationHuang S, Hu H, Sánchez BN, Peterson KE, Ettinger AS, Lamadrid-Figueroa H, Schnaas L, Mercado-García A, Wright RO, Basu N, Cantonwine DE, Hernández-Avila M, Téllez-Rojo MM. 2016. Childhood blood lead levels and symptoms of attention deficit hyperactivity disorder (ADHD): a cross-sectional study of Mexican children. Environ Health Perspect 124:868-874; http://dx.doi.org/10.1289/ehp.1510067.

Project description:Background and objectiveMounting evidence showed that lead exposure increased the risk of child attention-deficit-hyperactivity disorder (ADHD). Epidemiologic studies have typically used the blood-lead as a biomarker of lead exposure; blood-lead levels mostly reflect recent lead exposure. However, few studies have examined the relationship between bone-lead, a biomarker of cumulative exposure, and ADHD. Therefore, we aimed to compare the associations of bone-lead vs blood-lead levels with child ADHD symptoms and comorbidities.MethodsA total of 164 children aged 3-15 years were enrolled during 2014-2015. The Vanderbilt-ADHD-Diagnostic-Parent-Rating Scale (VADPRS) was used to evaluate the children's ADHD symptoms and comorbidities. Children's blood and bone lead concentrations were assessed, the latter using a non-invasive K-X-ray-fluorescence technique. According to blood-lead levels, children were classified into high (blood-lead ≥ 10.0 μg/dL) and low (blood-lead < 10.0 μg/dL) blood-lead groups. According to bone-lead levels, children were classified into high (bone-lead ≥ 2.66 μg/g) and low (bone-lead < 2.66 μg/g) bone-lead groups. We associated blood/bone lead with VADPRS data using multi-variable binary logistic regression models.ResultsChildren in the high blood-lead group had higher hyperactivity/impulsivity (P = 0.02) scores than the corresponding low blood-lead group. Children in the high bone-lead group had higher hyperactivity/impulsivity (P = 0.02) and oppositional-defiant-disorder (ODD) (P = 0.03) scores than the corresponding low bone-lead group. After adjusting for relevant confounders, children in the high bone-lead group were more likely to have ODD-behavior than the low group (OR = 6.7, 95%CI: 1.2-36.5). However, no adjusted association was observed between blood-lead and any ADHD-domain score.ConclusionHigh levels of cumulative lead exposure in children may be an independent risk factor of ODD-behavior.

Project description:BackgroundFor the diagnosis of attention-deficit/hyperactivity disorder (ADHD), the Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders (DSM-5) proposes that adherence to six symptoms in either group (inattention and hyperactivity/impulsivity) will lead to the diagnosis of one of three presentations of the disorder. Underlying this diagnostic algorithm is the assumption that the 18 symptoms have equal relevance for the diagnosis of ADHD, all are equally severe, and all have the same power to detect the presence of the disorder in all its degrees of severity, without considering the possibility of using marker symptoms. However, several studies have suggested that ADHD symptoms differ in both their power to discriminate the presence of the disorder and the degree of severity they represent. The aim of the present study was to replicate the results of previous research by evaluating the discriminative capacity and relative severity of ADHD symptoms, as well as to extend the investigation of this topic to Spanish-speaking Latin American samples.MethodsThe properties of ADHD symptoms rated by the parents of 474 Chilean children were analyzed. Symptom parameters were estimated using the graded response model.ResultsThe results suggest that symptoms of ADHD differ substantially in both the accuracy with which they reflect the presence of the disorder, and their relative severity. Symptoms "easily distracted by extraneous stimuli" and "have difficulty sustaining attention in tasks" (inattention) and "is on the go, acting as if driven by motor" (hyperactivity/impulsivity) were the most informative, and those with relatively lower severity thresholds.DiscussionThe fact that symptoms differ substantially in the probability of being observed conditionally to the trait level suggests the need to refine the diagnostic process by weighting the severity of the symptom, and even to assess the possibility of defining ADHD marker symptoms, as has been done in other disorders.

Dataset Information

Mobile phone use, blood lead levels, and attention deficit hyperactivity symptoms in children: a longitudinal study.

Background

Methods

Results

Conclusions

Publications

Mobile phone use, blood lead levels, and attention deficit hyperactivity symptoms in children: a longitudinal study.

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