| Figures/TablesFigures/Tables | Referen
cesReferen
cescoding="UTF-8"?>
class="h4">Background
Prenatal exposure to methylmer
cury is asso
ciated with adverse neurologi
c development in
children. We examined total blood mer
cury
con
centrations and predi
ctors of higher blood mer
cury
con
centrations in pregnant and nonpregnant women.
class="h4">Methods
We analyzed data from 1183 pregnant and 5587 nonpregnant women aged 16-49 years from the 1999-2006 National Health and Nutrition Examination Survey (NHANES). We estimated geometric mean blood mercury concentrations and characteristics associated with higher mercury concentrations (鈮?.5 渭g/L) in crude and adjusted linear and logistic regression models.
class="h4">Results
After adjusting for age and race/ethnicity, geometric mean blood mercury concentrations were clinically similar but significantly lower for pregnant (0.81 渭g/L; 95% confidence interval [CI], 0.71-0.91) and nonpregnant women of childbearing age (0.93 渭g/L; 95% CI, 0.87-0.99); 94% of pregnant and 89% of nonpregnant women had blood mercury concentrations below 3.5 渭g/L. The most significant predictor of higher blood mercury concentrations for both pregnant and nonpregnant women was any seafood consumption vs no consumption in the last 30 days (odds ratio, 18.7; 95% CI, 4.9-71.1; odds ratio, 15.5; 95% CI, 7.5-32.1, respectively). Other characteristics associated with 鈮?.5 渭g/L blood mercury concentrations were older age (鈮?5 years), higher education (greater than high school), and higher family income to poverty ratio (3.501+) for both pregnant and nonpregnant women.
class="h4">Conclusion
Pregnancy status was not strongly associated with blood mercury concentrations in women of childbearing age and blood mercury concentrations above the 3.5 渭g/L cut were uncommon.