ArticleEnvironmental health : a global access science source2018
Prenatal exposure to phthalates and autism spectrum disorder in the MARBLES study.
Article in Environmental health : a global access science source, 2018. The graph could read no effect estimate from its abstract, so it casts no vote on the map. Cited by 50 papers, 4 of them syntheses that pooled it.
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Who cites it
50 citing papers in PubMed, 4 syntheses or guidelines pooled it, 87 citations in OpenAlex.
- Sex-dependent vulnerability to early-life phthalates exposure and autism spectrum disorders: a systematic review.Frontiers in child and adolescent psychiatry · 2026Pooled it
- Early-life exposure to endocrine-disrupting chemicals and autistic traits in childhood and adolescence: a systematic review of epidemiological studies.Frontiers in endocrinology · 2023Pooled it
- Maternal Dietary Factors and the Risk of Autism Spectrum Disorders: A Systematic Review of Existing Evidence.Autism research : official journal of the International Society for Autism Research · 2020Pooled it
- Phthalate exposure and neurodevelopment: A systematic review and meta-analysis of human epidemiological evidence.Environment international · 2020Pooled it
- Micronutrients as Mitigators of Endocrine Disrupting Chemical Health Effects: A Scoping Review and Framework for Epidemiologic Studies.Current environmental health reports · 2026Article
- Association between gestational environmental chemical mixtures and folate exposures with autistic behaviors in a Canadian birth cohort.Environmental epidemiology (Philadelphia, Pa.) · 2025Article
- Gestational exposures to mixtures of multiple chemical classes and autism spectrum disorder in the MARBLES study.Environmental research · 2025Article
- Testing the Development of a Diet-Based Bisphenol a Score to Facilitate Studies on Child Neurodevelopment: A Pilot Project.International journal of environmental research and public health · 2025Article
- Periods of susceptibility for associations between phthalate exposure and preterm birth: Results from a pooled analysis of 16 US cohorts.Environment international · 2025Article
- Gestational phthalate exposure and behavioral problems in preschool-aged children with increased likelihood of autism spectrum disorder.International journal of hygiene and environmental health · 2025Article
- Excess prenatal folic acid supplementation alters cortical DNA methylation and gene expression networks.Frontiers in nutrition · 2025Article
- Embryoid Body Test: A Simple and Reliable Alternative Developmental Toxicity Test.International journal of molecular sciences · 2024Review
- Gestational exposure to organophosphate esters and autism spectrum disorder and other non-typical development in a cohort with elevated familial likelihood.Environmental research · 2024Article
- Associating prenatal phthalate exposure with childhood autistic traits: Investigating potential adverse outcome pathways and the modifying effects of maternal vitamin D.Eco-Environment & Health · 2024Article
- Combined Exposure to Folate and Lead during Pregnancy and Autistic-Like Behaviors among Canadian Children from the MIREC Pregnancy and Birth Cohort.Environmental health perspectives · 2024Article
- Invited Perspective: Protect and Serve-The Potential Role of Folate in Lead Risk Reduction.Environmental health perspectives · 2024Article
- Endocrine Disruptors in Pregnancy: Effects on Mothers and Fetuses-A Review.Journal of clinical medicine · 2024Review
- Disrupted Prenatal Metabolism May Explain the Etiology of Suboptimal Neurodevelopment: A Focus on Phthalates and Micronutrients and their Relationship to Autism Spectrum Disorder.Advances in nutrition (Bethesda, Md.) · 2024Review
- Use of Cosmetics in Pregnancy and Neurotoxicity: Can It Increase the Risk of Congenital Enteric Neuropathies?Biomolecules · 2024Review
- Prenatal air pollution and children's autism traits score: Examination of joint associations with maternal intake of vitamin D, methyl donors, and polyunsaturated fatty acids using mixture methods.Environmental epidemiology (Philadelphia, Pa.) · 2024Article
Corrections and comments
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Authors and funding
7 authors at 3 institutions in 1 country.
Funding
Abstract
backgroundEvidence from experimental and observational studies suggests that prenatal phthalate exposures may be associated with autism spectrum disorder (ASD). We examined whether prenatal phthalate exposures were associated with an increased risk of ASD.
methodsWe quantified 14 metabolites of eight phthalates in 636 multiple maternal urine samples collected during 2nd and 3rd trimesters of pregnancy from 201 mother-child pairs in MARBLES (Markers of Autism Risk in Babies - Learning Early Signs), a high-risk ASD longitudinal cohort. At 3 years old, children were clinically assessed for ASD and classified into three diagnostic categories: ASD (n = 46), non-typical development (Non-TD, n = 55), and typical development (TD, n = 100). We used multinomial logistic regression to evaluate the association of phthalate metabolite concentrations with ASD and Non-TD.
resultsMost associations of phthalate biomarkers with both ASD and Non-TD were null, with the exception that monoethyl phthalate (MEP) was significantly associated with an increased risk of Non-TD (per 2.72-fold relative increase in concentration: Relative risk ratio (RRR) = 1.38; 95% confidence interval (CI): 1.01, 1.90). When stratified by prenatal vitamin use during the first month of pregnancy, among mothers who took vitamins, ASD risk was inversely associated with mono-isobutyl phthalate (MiBP, RRR = 0.44; 95% CI: 0.21, 0.88), mono(3-carboxypropyl) phthalate (MCPP, RRR = 0.41; 95% CI: 0.20, 0.83) and mono-carboxyisooctyl phthalate (MCOP, RRR = 0.49; 95% CI: 0.27, 0.88), but among mothers who did not take prenatal vitamins, Non-TD risk was positively associated with MCPP (RRR = 5.09; 95% CI: 2.05, 12.6), MCOP (RRR = 1.86; 95% CI: 1.01, 3.39), and mono-carboxyisononyl phthalate (MCNP, RRR = 3.67; 95% CI: 1.80, 7.48). When stratified by sex, among boys, MEP, monobenzyl phthalate, MCPP, MCNP, and sum of di(2-ethylhexyl) phthalate metabolites (ΣDEHP) were positively associated with Non-TD risk, but associations with ASD were null. Among girls, associations with both ASD and Non-TD were null.
conclusionsOur study showed that phthalate exposures in mid- to late pregnancy were not associated with ASD in children from this high-risk ASD cohort. Further studies should be conducted in the general population without high-risk genes to confirm our findings.
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