Trends and variability in blood lead concentrations among US children and adolescents
2016
Jain, Ram B.
Using data from the National Health and Nutrition Examination Survey for the period 2003–2012, the objective of this study was to evaluate trends in blood lead levels (BLL) among children aged 1–5 and 6–11 years and smoker and nonsmoker adolescents aged 12–19 years. Regression models with log10 transformed values of BLLs as dependent variable were fitted to evaluate how gender, race/ethnicity, smoking, and exposure to secondhand smoke at home affect BLLs. Irrespective of age, gender, and race/ethnicity, BLLs declined over the study period (p ≤ 0.01). Overall, adjusted BLLs declined by 0.00114 μg/dL for every 2 years. Children aged 1–5 years had about 50 % higher BLLs than smoker adolescents, about 75 % higher BLLs than nonsmoker adolescents, and about 45 % higher BLLs than children aged 6–11 years. While overall, children aged 1–5 years with BLL ≥ 5 μg/dL made up 3.24 %, 7.8 % non-Hispanic Black children aged 1–5 years had BLL ≥ 5 μg/dL. Males were found to have higher adjusted BLLs than females, and non-Hispanic Blacks were found to have higher adjusted BLLs than non-Hispanic Whites. Higher poverty income ratio was associated with lower adjusted BLLs (β = −0.02916, p < 0.01). Children living in owner-occupied homes had lower adjusted BLLs than children living in renter-occupied homes. BLLs increased with increase in number of smokers smoking inside the home (β = 0.02496, p = 0.02). In conclusion, while BLLs have declined for all age groups, genders, and races/ethnicities, certain races/ethnicities like non-Hispanic Blacks continue to have substantially higher BLLs than non-Hispanic Whites.
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