Assessment of a Screening Questionnaire to Identify Exposure to Lead in Pregnant Women

Eléna Coiplet (1) , Marine Freuchet (1, 2) , Claire Sunyach (1) , Julien Mancini (3) , Jeanne Perrin (1, 4) , Blandine Courbiere (1, 4) , Hélène Heckenroth (1) , Christel Pissier (5) , Naima Hamdaoui (1, 6) , Florence Bretelle (1, 7)

1 Department of Gynecology-Obstetric and Reproductive Medicine, Women-Parents-Children Centre (Pôle Femmes-Parents-Enfants/Hôpital La Conception), 147 Boulevard Baille, 13005 Marseille, France.
2 Centre Hospitalier d'Aubagne, 13400 Aubagne, France.
3 SESSTIM - U1252 INSERM - Aix Marseille Univ - UMR 259 IRD - Sciences Economiques et Sociales de la Santé & Traitement de l'Information Médicale
4 IMBE - Institut méditerranéen de biodiversité et d'écologie marine et continentale
5 Pharmacokinetics and Toxicology Laboratory (Laboratoire de Pharmacocinétique et Toxicologie), AP-HM, 13005 Marseille, France.
6 Conseil Départemental des Bouches du Rhône-CD13, 13002 Marseille, France
7 MEPHI - Microbes évolution phylogénie et infections

Lead readily crosses the placenta and displays adverse effects on birth outcomes and neurodevelopment. Systematic identification of the risk of exposure during pregnancy is essential but rarely performed, probably due to hospital staff's workload and their lack of awareness. We aimed to evaluate the relevance of a questionnaire to screen pregnant women for lead exposure. A cross-sectional, multicentre study was carried out on a population of 792 pregnant women from February 2018 to May 2020. A total of 596 women had a blood lead test: 68.5% had blood lead levels below 10 μg/L. The estimated prevalence above 25 µg/L was 4% (95% confidence interval (CI) [2.6-5.9]) and 1.3% had levels above 50 µg/L (95% CI [0.6-2.6]). Multivariate analysis showed that three risk factors significantly increased the probability of blood lead levels above 25 µg/L: the use of traditional cosmetics (adjusted odds ratio [aOR]: 3.90; 95% CI [1.65-9.21]; p = 0.002), degraded old housing (aOR: 2.67; 95% CI [1.19-6.038]; p = 0.018), and (marginally) eating bread more than twice a day (aOR: 2.40; 95% CI [0.96-6.11]; p = 0.060). Our study reveals that a three-question tool can be used to quickly screen for the risk of lead exposure in our population and to trigger lead blood tests and special vigilance during pregnancy follow-up.

Mots clés: environment; lead exposure; pregnancy; risk factors

Domaines: Santé; Gynécologie et obstétrique

Eléna Coiplet, Marine Freuchet, Claire Sunyach, Julien Mancini, Jeanne Perrin, et al.. Assessment of a Screening Questionnaire to Identify Exposure to Lead in Pregnant Women. International Journal of Environmental Research and Public Health, 2020, 17 (24), pp.9220. ⟨10.3390/ijerph17249220⟩. ⟨hal-03146067⟩