Abstract
A growing number of epidemiologic studies have estimated the associations between endocrine-disrupting chemicals and gestational diabetes mellitus (GDM). However, reports on the association between bisphenol A (BPA) substitutes and GDM are limited. This investigation aimed to explore the associations of maternal serum BPA, bisphenol B (BPB), bisphenol F (BPF), bisphenol S (BPS), and tetrabromobisphenol A (TBBPA) with the risk of GDM. A nested case-control study was performed among 500 pregnant women. Associations between the serum bisphenol levels and the risk of GDM were assessed by conditional logistic regression analysis and two-mixture modeling approaches (Bayesian kernel machine regression [BKMR] and quantile g-computation). BPA and TBBPA were negatively associated with the risk of GDM in the adjusted models, respectively. Intermediate BPS levels were associated with increased odds (OR: 1.84; 95% CI: 1.04, 3.27) of GDM compared with the low concentration groups only based on the single-bisphenol models. Associations between BPA, BPS, and TBBPA with the risk of GDM were also found in the BKMR analysis. The quantile g-computation (OR: 0.55; 95% CI: 0.43, 0.69) and BKMR models revealed a statistically significant and negative joint effect of the five bisphenols on the risk of GDM. This study demonstrates the association between exposure to BPS with the increased risk of GDM. In addition, exposure to BPA and TBBPA were associated with the reduced risk of GDM. Moreover, exposure to the mixture of the five bisphenols was negatively associated with the risk of GDM.