IDEAS home Printed from https://ideas.repec.org/a/gam/jijerp/v14y2017i10p1202-d114487.html
   My bibliography  Save this article

Blood Lead Levels and Learning Disabilities: A Cross-Sectional Study of the 2003–2004 National Health and Nutrition Examination Survey (NHANES)

Author

Listed:
  • David A. Geier

    (Institute of Chronic Illnesses, Inc., 14 Redgate Ct, Silver Spring, MD 20905, USA
    CoMeD, Inc., Silver Spring, MD 20905, USA)

  • Janet K. Kern

    (Institute of Chronic Illnesses, Inc., 14 Redgate Ct, Silver Spring, MD 20905, USA
    CoMeD, Inc., Silver Spring, MD 20905, USA
    CONEM US Autism Research Group, Allen, TX 75013, USA)

  • Mark R. Geier

    (Institute of Chronic Illnesses, Inc., 14 Redgate Ct, Silver Spring, MD 20905, USA
    CoMeD, Inc., Silver Spring, MD 20905, USA)

Abstract

Difficulties in the acquisition and use of listening, speaking, reading, writing, reasoning or mathematical abilities are present among persons diagnosed with learning disabilities (LDs). Previous studies suggest a significant relationship between lead (Pb) exposure and LDs. This study evaluated the potential dose-response relationship between blood Pb levels and the risk of LDs. This cross-sectional study examined 1411 children (32,788,743 weighted-persons) between 6 and 15 years old from the 2003–2004 National Health and Nutrition Examination Survey (NHANES) by analyzing demographics, health related-questions, and laboratory tests using survey logistic and frequency modeling in SAS. On a µg Pb/dL basis, a significant dose-dependent relationship between increasing blood Pb levels and increasing risk of LDs was observed (odds ratio (OR) = 1.21, 95% confidence interval (CI) = 1.03–1.43). The relationship remained significant when examining covariates such as gender and race (OR = 1.19, 95% CI = 1.00–1.40). By contrast, no dose-dependence was observed between increasing blood Pb levels and the risk of hay fever in the last year (OR = 0.77, 95% CI = 0.56–1.056), a non-plausibly biologically related outcome of blood Pb levels. Persons in the 50th–75th (12.80%) and 75th–100th (17.14%) percentiles of blood Pb were significantly more likely to have LDs than persons in the 0–50th percentile of blood Pb (8.78%). An estimated 1 million persons born in the US from 1989 to 1998 developed LDs from elevated blood Pb levels. Overall, this study revealed a significant dose-dependent association between increasing childhood blood Pb levels and the risk of a LD diagnosis, but it was not possible to ascribe a direct cause-effect relationship between blood Pb exposure and LD diagnosis. Childhood Pb exposure should be considered when evaluating children with LDs, and continuing efforts should be made to reduce Pb exposure.

Suggested Citation

  • David A. Geier & Janet K. Kern & Mark R. Geier, 2017. "Blood Lead Levels and Learning Disabilities: A Cross-Sectional Study of the 2003–2004 National Health and Nutrition Examination Survey (NHANES)," IJERPH, MDPI, vol. 14(10), pages 1-10, October.
    • Handle: RePEc:gam:jijerp:v:14:y:2017:i:10:p:1202-:d:114487
    as

    Download full text from publisher

    File URL: https://www.mdpi.com/1660-4601/14/10/1202/pdf
    Download Restriction: no
    File URL: https://www.mdpi.com/1660-4601/14/10/1202/
    Download Restriction: no
    ---><---

    References listed on IDEAS

    as
    1. Howard W. Mielke & Christopher R. Gonzales & Eric T. Powell, 2017. "Soil Lead and Children’s Blood Lead Disparities in Pre- and Post-Hurricane Katrina New Orleans (USA)," IJERPH, MDPI, vol. 14(4), pages 1-12, April.
    2. Sabrina Nunes do Nascimento & Mariele Feiffer Charão & Angela Maria Moro & Miguel Roehrs & Clovis Paniz & Marília Baierle & Natália Brucker & Adriana Gioda & Fernando Barbosa & Denise Bohrer & Daiana , 2014. "Evaluation of Toxic Metals and Essential Elements in Children with Learning Disabilities from a Rural Area of Southern Brazil," IJERPH, MDPI, vol. 11(10), pages 1-18, October.
    Full references (including those not matched with items on IDEAS)

    Citations

    Citations are extracted by the CitEc Project, subscribe to its RSS feed for this item.
    as


    Cited by:

    1. Amal K. Mitra & Charkarra Anderson-Lewis, 2020. "Community Engagement and Outreach Programs for Lead Prevention in Mississippi," IJERPH, MDPI, vol. 18(1), pages 1-9, December.

    Most related items

    These are the items that most often cite the same works as this one and are cited by the same works as this one.
    1. Osmel La-Llave-León & Edna M. Méndez-Hernández & Francisco X. Castellanos-Juárez & Eloísa Esquivel-Rodríguez & Fernando Vázquez-Alaniz & Ada Sandoval-Carrillo & Gonzalo García-Vargas & Jaime Duarte-Su, 2017. "Association between Blood Lead Levels and Delta-Aminolevulinic Acid Dehydratase in Pregnant Women," IJERPH, MDPI, vol. 14(4), pages 1-10, April.

    Corrections

    All material on this site has been provided by the respective publishers and authors. You can help correct errors and omissions. When requesting a correction, please mention this item's handle: RePEc:gam:jijerp:v:14:y:2017:i:10:p:1202-:d:114487. See general information about how to correct material in RePEc.

    If you have authored this item and are not yet registered with RePEc, we encourage you to do it here. This allows to link your profile to this item. It also allows you to accept potential citations to this item that we are uncertain about.

    If CitEc recognized a bibliographic reference but did not link an item in RePEc to it, you can help with this form .

    If you know of missing items citing this one, you can help us creating those links by adding the relevant references in the same way as above, for each refering item. If you are a registered author of this item, you may also want to check the "citations" tab in your RePEc Author Service profile, as there may be some citations waiting for confirmation.

    For technical questions regarding this item, or to correct its authors, title, abstract, bibliographic or download information, contact: MDPI Indexing Manager (email available below). General contact details of provider: https://www.mdpi.com .

    Please note that corrections may take a couple of weeks to filter through the various RePEc services.

    IDEAS is a RePEc service. RePEc uses bibliographic data supplied by the respective publishers.