Evidence map›Paper›PMID 30417653›Full record

ArticleEnvironmental health perspectives2018

Conditioning on Parity in Studies of Perfluoroalkyl Acids and Time to Pregnancy: An Example from the Danish National Birth Cohort.

Cathrine Bach, Niels Matthiesen, Jørn Olsen, Tine Henriksen

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Article in Environmental health perspectives, 2018. The graph could read no effect estimate from its abstract, so it casts no vote on the map. Cited by 7 papers, 1 of them a synthesis that pooled it.

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7citing papers in PubMed, 1 pooled it
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1 · What the graph read from it

What it found

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2 · The registry

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3 · Its place in the literature

Who cites it

7 citing papers in PubMed, 1 synthesis or guideline pooled it.

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4 · The record

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5 · Who and what money

Authors and funding

4 authors.

Cathrine BachDepartment of Pediatrics and Adolescent Medicine, Viborg Regional Hospital, Viborg, Denmark.
Niels MatthiesenDepartment of Pediatrics and Adolescent Medicine, Aarhus University Hospital, Aarhus, Denmark.
Jørn OlsenSection for Epidemiology, Department of Public Health, Aarhus University, Aarhus, Denmark.
Tine HenriksenDepartment of Pediatrics and Adolescent Medicine, Aarhus University Hospital, Aarhus, Denmark.

Funding

No grant is acknowledged in the PubMed record.

6 · The paper itself

Abstract

backgroundPrevious studies have investigated the associations between perfluoroalkyl acids (PFAAs) in women and time to pregnancy (TTP). Inconsistent results may be explained by differences in conditioning on parity.

objectivesWe used causal directed acyclic graphs to illustrate potential confounding related to previous pregnancies and exposure measurement error due to differences in the interpregnancy interval in pregnancy-based studies that include parous women. We exemplified the potential importance of these issues using data from the Danish National Birth Cohort.

methodsWe used discrete time survival models to estimate associations between maternal plasma PFAAs in early pregnancy and TTP in 638 nulliparous and 613 parous women.

resultsPFAA quartiles were not associated with the TTP in nulliparous women. In parous women, higher PFAA quartiles were associated with longer TTP. The strongest associations were estimated for perfluorohexane sulfonate and perfluorooctane sulfonate. PFAA concentrations were higher in women with longer interpregnancy intervals. Accounting for the interpregnancy interval attenuated the estimated associations.

conclusionsAssociations between PFAAs and TTP in parous women may be biased by confounders related to previous pregnancies and exposure measurement error. To avoid these biases, studies that include parous women may need to condition on a) common causes of PFAAs and the TTP in the index pregnancy, b) previous births (a descendant of a collider), c) PFAA levels or common causes of PFAA levels and the TTP in the previous pregnancy (to alleviate collider stratification bias caused by conditioning on previous births), and d) the interpregnancy interval (in pregnancy-based studies). Alternatives would be to restrict studies to nulliparous women or to use toxicokinetic modeling to correct exposure estimates in parous women. These recommendations may be extended to studies of other chemicals with similar toxicokinetic properties. https://doi.org/10.1289/EHP1493.

Indexed as

ParityAdultAlkanesulfonic AcidsCohort StudiesDenmarkFemaleFluorocarbonsHumansPregnancySulfonic AcidsTime-to-PregnancyAlkanesulfonic AcidsFluorocarbonsperfluorohexanesulfonic acidperfluorooctane sulfonic acidSulfonic Acids

Identifiers

PMID30417653
PMCPMC6371644

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Read under generation 80e0d062 · epoch 390. Bibliography from PubMed, PubMed Central and OpenAlex; grants from NIH RePORTER; trial links from ClinicalTrials.gov; estimates, votes and beliefs from the OpenQuestion graph.