Personal care product use patterns in association with phthalate and replacement biomarkers across pregnancy.
Level 3 - non-randomized controlled study
Prospective observational cohort study with repeated measures across pregnancy
PubMed 38177334 · doi:10.1038/s41370-023-00627-w
What was done
In the prospective Human Placenta and Phthalates Study, 303 pregnant women were enrolled in early pregnancy and followed across gestation for up to 8 visits. At each visit, participants completed a questionnaire assessing personal care product use in the prior 24 hours and provided urine samples to measure 18 phthalate and replacement metabolites. Responses and repeated metabolite concentrations were condensed across early, mid-, and late pregnancy. Latent class analysis (LCA) identified behavioral product-use patterns, and weighted regressions evaluated associations between class membership and biomarker concentrations.
What was found
LCA categorized participants into four product-use patterns across pregnancy: (1) low fragranced product use (16–23% of women), (2) fragranced product and low body wash use (22–26%), (3) fragranced product and low bar soap use (26–51%), and (4) low product use (7–34%). Women in the low fragranced product use group had 7–10% lower urinary monoethyl phthalate (MEP) concentrations and 15–21% lower concentrations of summed di(2-ethylhexyl) terephthalate metabolites compared to the population mean. Few other consistent associations between product-use groups and biomarker concentrations were observed.
Why it matters
While personal care products are often targeted for exposure-reduction advice, real-world multi-product use patterns show only modest associations with specific fragrance-related metabolites and do not result in universally lower phthalate biomarker levels.
Limits
Product use was self-reported over the prior 24 hours, introducing potential recall error. Phthalates have short biological half-lives and extensive non-cosmetic exposure routes (such as diet and indoor environments) that were not captured. Exact effect estimates, confidence intervals, and p-values were not provided in the abstract.
Cited by
- supports Pregnant women who report using fragranced products have higher measured bodily levels of phthalates.