Individual and mixture analyses of the associations of phenols and phthalates with lung function among US adults

ABSTRACT

The effects of endocrine disruptors including phenols and phthalates on adult lung function remain unclear. In the present study, data from 2007–2012 National Health and Nutrition Examination Survey (NHANES) were extracted, and 4338 participants were included in the final analyses. The associations of three phenols and four phthalate metabolites with six lung function parameters were investigated. In generalized linear regression models (GLM) and restricted cubic spline (RCS) analyses, bisphenol A (BPA) was associated with decreased forced expiratory volume in the first second (FEV1) and forced vital capacity (FVC), and 2,5-dichlorophenol (DCP) was associated with reduced FEV1, FVC and peak expiratory flow rate (PEF), and increased prevalence of restrictive lung function (RLF) in adults. Furthermore, weighted quantile sum (WQS) regression and Bayesian kernel machine regression (BKMR) models demonstrated that mixed exposures to phenols and phthalates were linked to reduced FEV1, FVC and PEF and increased prevalence of RLF, and these associations were mainly driven by BPA and 2,5-DCP. In conclusion, mixed exposure to phenols and phthalates was linked to compromised and a restrictive pattern of lung function. The mechanisms of the effects of phenol and phthalate exposures on lung function and respiratory diseases need to be further investigated.

GRAPHICAL ABSTRACT

KEYWORDS:

• Endocrine disruptor
• lung function
• bisphenol A
• 2,5-dichlorophenol
• phthalates

Acknowledgements

The authors thank Zhang Jing (Shanghai Fifth People’s Hospital) for help on data extraction and analyses with the nhanesR package.

Disclosure statement

No potential conflict of interest was reported by the author(s).

Author contributions

Chenchen Wang: Methodology, Software, Formal analysis, Visualization, Writing-original draft, Writing-reviewing and editing. Huaicheng Wang: Methodology, Software, Formal analysis, Data curation, Visualization, Writing-reviewing and editing. Jinpeng Cai: Methodology, Visualization, Writing-reviewing and editing. Xi Xu: Conceptualization, Methodology, Software, Supervision, Writing-original draft, Writing-reviewing and editing. All authors read and approved the final manuscript.

Data availability statement

Data used in the present study are freely available on the NHANES website: www.cdc.gov/nchs/nhanes/.

Supplementary material

Supplemental data for this article can be accessed online at https://doi.org/10.1080/09603123.2024.2352609

Additional information

Funding

This work was supported by the Fundamental Research Funds for the Central Universities under Grant [30923010906].