Background: Arsenic is associated with several adverse health outcomes, including some birth defects. Although diet is the predominant route of arsenic exposure in the United States (U.S.), limited data exist regarding pre-pregnancy dietary arsenic consumption among U.S. women.
Methods: Using data collected in the National Birth Defects Prevention Study (NBDPS), we estimated daily dietary arsenic consumption during the year before pregnancy for 10,886 mothers of nonmalformed control children delivered from 1997-2011. Responses to the NBDPS dietary assessment and food item estimates of total and inorganic arsenic were used to estimate consumption. Associations between total and inorganic arsenic consumption and selected maternal characteristics were estimated using multinomial logistic regression.
Results: Estimates of mean maternal total and inorganic dietary arsenic consumption were 14.9 and 5.2 μg/day, respectively. Several positive and inverse associations with confidence intervals that excluded the null were observed. Comparing mothers in the middle or high total arsenic consumption tertiles to those in the low tertile, we observed positive associations (odds ratios = 1.3-3.8) for maternal age (≥30 years), lower (0-8 years) or higher (>12 years) education, race/ethnicity (non-Hispanic Black, Hispanic, other), and early pregnancy drinking with no binge episodes, and inverse associations (odds ratios = 0.4-0.8) for age (<25 years), body mass index (≥30.0 kg/m² ), and early pregnancy smoking. Findings tended to be similar for inorganic arsenic consumption.
Conclusions: These contemporary estimates of pre-pregnancy dietary arsenic consumption among U.S. women show associations between both total and inorganic dietary arsenic consumption and several maternal characteristics, improving characterization of the public health impact of this exposure.