Phthalate exposure linked to diabetes for midlife white women
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Among midlife women participating in a large longitudinal study, certain phthalate metabolites were associated with higher diabetes incidence over 6 years — but only among white women, according to data published in The Journal of Clinical Endocrinology & Metabolism.
“Because [the past 6 decades] of increasing diabetes prevalence coincided with the increasing use of synthetic chemicals in industry and commerce, and many synthetic chemicals were found to disrupt energy and glucose metabolism in experimental models, exposure to metabolism-disrupting chemicals has been hypothesized to contribute to diabetes,” Mia Q. Peng, MPH, BSc, a doctoral student in the department of epidemiology at the University of Michigan School of Public Health, and colleagues wrote.
Researchers analyzed data from the ongoing longitudinal Study of Women’s Health Across the Nation (SWAN) Multipollutant Study to conduct an ancillary study of 1,400 SWAN participants (median age, 49.4 years; 51.6% white; 20.3% Black; 28.2% Asian) for environmental chemical exposure assessments using biospecimens from the 1999-2000 and 2002-2003 study visits. Researchers did not include any Hispanic women because all Hispanic participants had been recruited from the same study site. Researchers measured 11 phthalate metabolites in spot urine samples taken at each study visit during these timelines and collected incident diabetes cases between 1999-2000 and 2005-2006.
During a 6-year period, 61 women (4.7%) developed diabetes. Several high-molecular-weight phthalate metabolites were associated with a higher diabetes incidence among all women included in this study. However, none were statistically significant, and there was effect modification by race and/or ethnicity, according to the researchers.
Among white women, for every doubling of the concentrates of mono-isobutyl phthalate, monobenzyl phthalate, mono-carboxyoctyl phthalate, mono-carboxy isononyl phthalate and mono-(3-carboxypropyl) phthalate, there was an associated 30% to 63% higher diabetes incidence (HR = 1.63; 95% CI, 1.18-2.25 for mono-isobutyl phthalate; HR = 1.3; 95% CI, 1.03-1.65 for mono-carboxy isononyl phthalate), the researchers wrote. Despite this, phthalates were not associated with diabetes incidence among Black or Asian women.
According to the researchers, these racial and/or ethnic differences in the associations between phthalates and diabetes incidence should be evaluated in future studies.
“These findings suggest that phthalate exposure may potentially contribute to diabetes, but more research is needed to further understand phthalates’ impact on glucose homeostasis and diabetes,” the researchers wrote. “Given widespread exposure to phthalates and the enormous costs of diabetes to individuals and societies, ongoing investments in the research on phthalates’ metabolic effects are warranted.”
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