Socioeconomic and Racial/Ethnic Differences in Use of Endocrine-Disrupting Chemical-Associated Personal Care Product Categories among Pregnant Women.

Personal care products (PCPs) are important and modifiable sources of exposure to endocrine disrupting chemicals (EDCs). Research is limited on how EDC-associated PCP use differs by race/ethnicity and socioeconomic status (SES), particularly during the sensitive period of pregnancy. We investigated differences in PCP use by race/ethnicity and SES among 497 participants in the LIFECODES pregnancy cohort (Boston, Massachusetts). Participants self-reported race/ethnicity, SES indicators (maternal education; insurance status), and recent PCP use via questionnaire at ≤4 prenatal visits. We evaluated trimester-specific differences in use of individual PCP categories by race/ethnicity and SES indicators. We used Poisson regression to estimate trimester-specific mean total product categories used by race/ethnicity and SES indicators. In the first trimester, compared to non-Hispanic White women, Hispanic women reported higher use of hair gel (45% vs. 28%), perfume (75% vs. 39%), and "other" hair products (37% vs. 19%). Compared to women with a college degree, women without a college degree reported higher use of perfume (79% vs. 41%) and bar soap (74% vs. 56%); patterns were similar for insurance status. The estimated mean total product categories used was significantly lower in Asian compared to non-Hispanic White women in all trimesters (e.g., Trimester 1: 4.8 vs. 6.7 categories; p<0.001). Patterns of PCP use differed by race/ethnicity and SES, with implications for potentially modifiable differential EDC exposure and associated pregnancy outcomes.

• Publication year

  2021

• Venue

  Environmental Research

• Publication date

  2021-05-03

• Fields of study

  Sociology, Medicine, Environmental Science

• Identifiers
  DOI 10.1016/j.envres.2021.111212PMID 33957140PMCID PMC8886956
• External record

  Open on Semantic Scholar

• Source metadata

  Semantic Scholar, PubMed

• No claims are published for this paper.

• No concepts are published for this paper.

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