Association between body mass index and waist circumference with urinary paraben concentrations among adults, NHANES 2005-2014

摘要

Parabens are a group of synthetic chemicals commonly used as antimicrobial preservatives in cosmetics, food, and pharmaceuticals. Although human exposure to select parabens is ubiquitous, their potential health effects have not been fully explored, and one recent in vitro study suggests that parabens may be linked to obesity while an in vivo study reported an inverse association between exposure and weight gain. This is the first study to examine the cross sectional association between exposure to four parabens (methyl, ethyl, butyl, and propyl) and measures of obesity (body mass index, BMI and waist circumference, WC) in 6,195 adults (>20 years) and 2,220 children (6-19 years) using a nationally representative sample of the U.S. population. We used multivariate regression analyses to test these associations, controlling forage, gender, race/ethnicity, urinary creatinine, smoking, diet, and physical activity. For adults, both BMI and WC were inversely associated with butyl (BP), ethyl (EP), methyl (MP), and propyl parabens (PP). BMI decreased by 1.29 (95% confidence interval (95% CI): -1.62, -0.96) kg/m~2 and WC decreased by 3.28 (95% CI: -4.07, -2.49) cm for every unit increase in log-10 MP concentrations, and BMI decreased by 0.95 (95% CI: -1.20, -0.71) kg/m~2 and WC decreased by 2.47 (95% CI: -3.10, -1.84) cm for every unit increase in log-10 for PP. Detection of BP was associated with a 1.43 (95% CI: 1.86, -1.00) kg/m~2 decrease in BMI and a 3.53 (95% CI: -4.62, -2.44) cm decrease in WC, while detection of EP was associated with a 1.83 (95% CI: -2.29, -1.38) kg/m~2 decrease in BMI and a 4.40 (95% CI: -5.45, -3.34) cm decrease in WC. Preliminary results indicate similar findings among children. These associations warrant further examination to confirm our findings and further studies are needed to elucidate the potential mechanisms by which these agents could impact metabolism.