ArticleEnvironmental science and pollution research international2016
Prenatal low-level mercury exposure and infant neurodevelopment at 12 months in rural northern China.
Article in Environmental science and pollution research international, 2016. The graph could read no effect estimate from its abstract, so it casts no vote on the map. Cited by 10 papers, 5 of them syntheses that pooled it.
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Who cites it
10 citing papers in PubMed, 5 syntheses or guidelines pooled it, 20 citations in OpenAlex.
- Neurodevelopmental Outcomes Associated with Early-Life Exposure to Heavy Metals: A Systematic Review.International journal of environmental research and public health · 2025Pooled it
- Seafood During Pregnancy and Lactation and Child Neurocognitive Development: A Systematic Review.Advances in nutrition (Bethesda, Md.) · 2025Pooled it
- Prenatal Mercury Exposure and Neurodevelopment up to the Age of 5 Years: A Systematic Review.International journal of environmental research and public health · 2022Pooled it
- Heavy metals and neurodevelopment of children in low and middle-income countries: A systematic review.PloS one · 2022Pooled it
- Relationships between seafood consumption during pregnancy and childhood and neurocognitive development: Two systematic reviews.Prostaglandins, leukotrienes, and essential fatty acids · 2019Pooled it
- Seafood Toxicant Exposure During Pregnancy, Lactation, and Childhood and Child Outcomes: A Scoping Review.Advances in nutrition (Bethesda, Md.) · 2025Article
- Association between Prenatal Dietary Toxicants and Infant Neurodevelopment: The Role of Fish.Toxics · 2024Article
- Net effects explains the benefits to children from maternal fish consumption despite methylmercury in fish.Neurotoxicology · 2023Article
- Health Impacts and Biomarkers of Prenatal Exposure to Methylmercury: Lessons from Minamata, Japan.Toxics · 2018Article
- Prenatal low-level mercury exposure and infant neurodevelopment at 12 months in rural northern China.Environmental science and pollution research international · 2016Article
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Authors and funding
9 authors at 1 institution in 1 country.
Funding
No grant is acknowledged in the PubMed record.
Abstract
Although MeHg is a confirmed neurotoxin at sufficiently high dosages, the effect of prenatal low-level Hg exposure on infant neurodevelopment is still unknown. Four hundred ten mother-infant pairs were recruited in rural northern China from September 2010 to September 2012. We investigated maternal diet during pregnancy, collected maternal and umbilical blood samples, and tested infant neurodevelopment using Gesell developmental schedules (GDS) at the age of 1 year old. The geometric means (GM) of Hg exposure in maternal and umbilical blood were 0.72 and 1.2 μg/L, respectively. Positive associations between Hg levels and the frequency of total fish consumption were found (Spearman's correlation, r = 0.09 for maternal Hg, r = 0.14 for umbilical Hg, p < 0.01). After adjusting for confounding factors, we found a log-unit increase in umbilical blood Hg levels was associated with a 4.22-point (95 % confidence interval (95 %CI) 0.77 to 7.67) increase in the adaptive domain and a 4.06-point (95 %CI 0.51 to 7.62) increase in the social domain. No significant association has been found between other domains and Hg levels in our study. In further analysis, we noticed the positive correlation between the developmental quotient (DQ) scores of the adaptive domain and frequencies of total fish consumption (p = 0.04). Our results failed to indicate the adverse effects between prenatal Hg exposure and infant neurodevelopment. However, given the low-level Hg exposure and its predominant source, the potential positive associations in our study may be attributed to the beneficial nutrients of fish consumption.
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