Lead as a social determinant of child and adolescent physiological
stress and behavior

Date:
April 11, 2022
Source:
University of Pennsylvania School of Nursing
Summary:
Lead is an environmental neurotoxicant that causes neurocognitive
deficits and cardiovascular and metabolic disorders. It also
disproportionately affects socially disadvantaged communities. The
association between lead exposure and children's IQ has been
well studied, but few studies have examined the effects of blood
lead on children's physiological stress and behavior. Three new
studies shed light on how lead can affect children and adolescents'
physiological stress and emotional/behavioral development.



FULL STORY ==========================================================================
Lead is an environmental neurotoxicant that causes neurocognitive deficits
and cardiovascular and metabolic disorders. It also disproportionately
affects socially disadvantaged communities. The association between
lead exposure and children's IQ has been well studied, but few studies
have examined the effects of blood lead on children's physiological
stress and behavior. Three University of Pennsylvania School of Nursing
(Penn Nursing) studies shed light on how lead can affect children and adolescents' physiological stress and emotional/ behavioral development.


==========================================================================
Lead Exposure and the Psychological Stress Response Exposure to lead
during childhood and adolescence is associated with a host of detrimental outcomes that persist into adulthood. Until now, however, few studies
have tested the association between lead exposure and the physiological
stress response, which in and of itself may act as a precursor to and/or underlying mechanism of detrimental health outcomes.

A study from Penn Nursing adds new evidence suggesting that early
childhood lead exposure is significantly associated with dysregulated
heart rate variability during an induced stress task in early adolescence, indicative of a dysregulated stress response. These findings hold
implications for cardiovascular health and overall growth and development.

"The biological mechanisms underpinning the relationship between lead
and physiological stress functionality are relatively unknown," said first-author Olivia M. Halabicky, PhD, RN, who completed this work as
a doctoral student at Penn Nursing. Dysregulated stress responses are associated with a host of health consequences including cardiovascular and metabolic diseases as well as impaired neurodevelopment and neurocognitive outcomes of general and higher- order cognition. "Understanding
these relationships could help to develop interventions to target
this biological mechanism and thereby reduce the harmful effects of
lead exposure for children at greatest risk," said senior- author and
principal investigator Jianghong Liu, PhD, RN, FAAN, the Marjorie O.

Rendell Endowed Professor in Healthy Transitions and the Faculty Director
of Global Health Minor. Liu is also Director of the NIH-funded China
Jintan Child Health Project, which follows more than 1,000 children in
Jintan, China from pre-school into adolescence to understand the influence
of exposure to environmental lead, nutrition, and psychosocial factors
on their behavior.

The article "Early Childhood Lead Exposure and Adolescent Heart Rate Variability: A Longitudinal Cohort Study" was published in the journal Environmental Researchand is available online. Co-authors also include
Penn Nursing's Jennifer A. Pinto-Martin, PhD, MPH, and Peggy Compton,
PHD, RN, FAAN.

A similar study from Liu, published in the International Journal of
Hygiene and Health in 2020, investigated the gaps in understanding about
the effects of lead on resting heart rate.

Lead Exposure Explains Adversity-Antisocial Relationship In another novel investigation, Liu and collaborative researchers recently documented that
blood lead in adolescents from Philadelphia aged 11 and 12 was positively correlated with both more social adversity and more externalizing
behavior, and importantly that blood lead levels mediated the social
adversity- externalizing behavior relationship.

"These findings have potentially important implications for public
health and environmental regulation as well as understanding biological mechanisms that link social inequality with health outcomes, especially
in youth from low- income, urban areas," says Liu.

These findings also highlight the importance of both social and
environmental determinants of adolescent health. They underline the
need to mitigate adverse social influences and monitor lead exposure
in children's environments to reduce likelihood of developing problems
with externalizing behaviors, a risk factor for criminality and lower
social mobility later in life. The article "Blood Lead Levels Mediate the Relationship Between Social Adversity and Child Externalizing Behavior"
was published in the journal Environmental Research and is available
online. Coauthors include Jill Portnoy and Presley McGarry, both of the University of Massachusetts; Adrian Raine, Margaret Gladieux and Aimin
Chen of the University of Pennsylvania.


========================================================================== Story Source: Materials provided by University_of_Pennsylvania_School_of_Nursing. Note: Content may be edited
for style and length.


========================================================================== Journal References:
1. Jianghong Liu, Jill Portnoy, Adrian Raine, Margaret Gladieux,
Presley
McGarry, Aimin Chen. Blood lead levels mediate the
relationship between social adversity and child externalizing
behavior. Environmental Research, 2022; 204: 112396 DOI:
10.1016/j.envres.2021.112396
2. Jianghong Liu, Jill Portnoy, Phoebe Um, Naixue Cui, Anna Rudo-Hutt,
Chonghai Yan, Adrian Raine, Aimin Chen. Blood lead and mercury
levels are associated with low resting heart rate in community
adolescent boys.

International Journal of Hygiene and Environmental Health, 2021;
233: 113685 DOI: 10.1016/j.ijheh.2020.113685
3. Olivia M. Halabicky, Jennifer A. Pinto-Martin, Peggy Compton,
Jianghong
Liu. Early childhood lead exposure and adolescent heart rate
variability: A longitudinal cohort study. Environmental Research,
2022; 205: 112551 DOI: 10.1016/j.envres.2021.112551 ==========================================================================

Link to news story: https://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2022/04/220411160525.htm

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