Martine Vrijheid

Instituto de Salud Global de Barcelona | ISGLOBAL · Child Health and Environment

Children born via cesarean delivery have a higher risk of metabolic, immunological, and neurodevelopmental disorders compared to those born via vaginal delivery, although mechanisms remain unclear. We conducted a meta-analysis of epigenome-wide association studies to examine the associations between delivery mode and blood DNA methylation at birth...

Background Helicobacter pylori is a prevalent infection that may complicate pregnancy, but evidence remains limited, controversial and may not apply to all pregnant women. Objective This study aims to evaluate whether Helicobacter pylori is a risk factor for adverse pregnancy outcomes and to identify vulnerable subpopulations. Study design Multip...

Background/Objective Children’s diets in school-age are inherently unhealthy, with few meeting dietary recommendations. Yet, little is known about similarities and differences on dietary patterns across countries and their association with obesity. We aimed to derive dietary patterns in childhood and explore their association with adiposity-related...

The European Commission asked EFSA to update its 2012 risk assessment on brominated phenols and their derivatives in food, focusing on five bromophenols and one derivative: 2,4,6‐tribromophenol (2,4,6‐TBP), 2,4‐dibromophenol (2,4‐DBP), 4‐bromophenol (4‐BP), 2,6‐dibromophenol (2,6‐DBP), tetrabrominated bisphenol S (TBBPS), tetrabromobisphenol S bism...

Background Micro- and nanoplastics (MNPs) are emerging pollutants of concern with ubiquitous presence in global ecosystems. MNPs pose potential implications for human health; however, the health impacts of MNP exposures are not yet understood. Recent evidence suggests that MNPs can cross the placental barrier, underlying the urgent need to understa...

Background Early childcare attendance may be related to children's internalizing and externalizing symptoms throughout childhood and young adolescence, however evidence from Europe is limited. We aimed to assess this association across multiple population-based birth cohorts of children recruited in different European countries. Methods Data come...

Maternal exposure to green space during pregnancy has been associated with lower risk for adverse birth outcomes; however, the underlying biological mechanisms remain largely unknown. Epigenetic changes, such as DNA methylation (DNAm), might be one of the molecular mechanisms contributing to this association. The placenta is the key organ for foeta...

The European Commission asked EFSA to update its 2011 risk assessment on tetrabromobisphenol A (TBBPA) and five derivatives in food. Neurotoxicity and carcinogenicity were considered as the critical effects of TBBPA in rodent studies. The available evidence indicates that the carcinogenicity of TBBPA occurs via non‐genotoxic mechanisms. Taking into...

EFSA requested its Scientific Committee to prepare a guidance document on appraising and integrating evidence from epidemiological studies for use in EFSA's scientific assessments. The guidance document provides an introduction to epidemiological studies and illustrates the typical biases, which may be present in different epidemiological study des...

BACKGROUND Micro- and nanoplastics (MNPs) are emerging pollutants of concern with ubiquitous presence in global ecosystems. MNPs pose potential implications for human health; however, the health impacts of MNP exposures are not yet understood. Recent evidence suggests that MNPs can cross the placental barrier, underlying the urgent need to understa...

Background/Objective: Children’s diets in school-age are inherently unhealthy, with few meeting dietary recommendations. Yet, little is known about similarities and differences on dietary patterns across countries and their association with obesity. We aimed to derive dietary patterns in childhood and explore their association with adiposity-relate...

Background Helicobacter pylori is a prevalent infection that may complicate pregnancy, but evidence remains limited, controversial and may not apply to all pregnant women. Objective This study aims to evaluate whether Helicobacter pylori is a risk factor for adverse pregnancy outcomes and to identify vulnerable subpopulations. Study design Multiple...

Worldwide trends to delay childbearing have increased parental ages at birth. Older parental age may harm offspring health, but mechanisms remain unclear. Alterations in offspring DNA methylation (DNAm) patterns could play a role as aging has been associated with methylation changes in gametes of older individuals. We meta‐analyzed epigenome‐wide a...

Background Early life environmental stressors play an important role in the development of multiple chronic disorders. Previous studies that used environmental risk scores (ERS) to assess the cumulative impact of environmental exposures on health are limited by the diversity of exposures included, especially for early life determinants. We used mac...

Potential differential and non‐differential recall error in mobile phone use (MPU) in the multinational MOBI‐Kids case–control study were evaluated. We compared self‐reported MPU with network operator billing record data up to 3 months, 1 year, and 2 years before the interview date from 702 subjects aged between 10 and 24 years in eight countries....

Introduction: The COVID-19 lockdowns have affected overweight and obesity levels worldwide, however less is known on how it affected excess weight incidence trends by sociodemographic characteristics, especially in Spain that suffered an extreme strict-lockdown. This study aimed to examine the impact of the COVID-19 lockdown on the incidence of ove...

INTRODUCTION: Dietary patterns have been changing in the past decades, with traditional whole food diets being replacedtowards highly processed foods. Yet, little is known about their association with factors related to future obesity amongEuropean children. To our knowledge, no study to date has investigated data- and hypothesis-driven patterns ac...

Introduction: Exposure to ambient air pollution may contribute to childhood obesity through various mechanisms, such as the decrease of glucose utilization by skeletal muscles, disruption of the endocrine system, and individual behavior changes, but few large longitudinal studies have explored this. This study aimed to examine associations between...

Importance Prenatal exposure to ubiquitous endocrine-disrupting chemicals (EDCs) may increase the risk of metabolic syndrome (MetS) in children, but few studies have studied chemical mixtures or explored underlying protein and metabolic signatures. Objective To investigate associations of prenatal exposure to EDC mixtures with MetS risk score in c...

Background Lower socioeconomic position (SEP) associates with adverse pregnancy and perinatal outcomes and with less favourable metabolic profile in nonpregnant adults. Socioeconomic differences in pregnancy metabolic profile are unknown. We investigated association between a composite measure of SEP and pregnancy metabolic profile in White Europea...

Through investigating the combined impact of the environmental exposures experienced by an individual throughout their lifetime, exposome research provides opportunities to understand and mitigate negative health outcomes. While current exposome research is driven by epidemiological studies that identify associations between exposures and effects,...

In utero and children’s exposure to per- and polyfluoroalkyl substances (PFAS) is a major concern in health risk assessment as early life exposures are suspected to induce adverse health effects. Our work aims to estimate children’s exposure (from birth to 12 years old) to PFOA and PFOS, using a Physiologically-Based Pharmacokinetic (PBPK) modellin...

Background: International guidelines recommend targeted screening to identify gestational thyroid dysfunction. However, currently used risk factors have questionable discriminative ability. We quantified the risk for thyroid function test abnormalities for a subset of risk factors currently used in international guidelines. Methods: We included pro...

Nutrition is critical during pregnancy for the healthy growth of the developing infant, who is fully dependent on maternal dietary omega-3 supply for development. Fatty fish, a main dietary source of omega-3, is associated with decreased cardiovascular risk in adults. We conducted a longitudinal study based on a mother–offspring cohort as part of t...

Objective The existence of catch-up lung function growth and its predictors is uncertain. We aimed to identify lung function trajectories and their predictors in a population-based birth cohort. Methods We applied group-based trajectory modelling to z-scores of forced expiratory volume in 1 second (zFEV 1 ) and z-scores of forced vital capacity (z...

Background Lower socioeconomic position (SEP) is associated with adverse pregnancy and perinatal outcomes and with less favourable metabolic profile in nonpregnant adults. However, socioeconomic differences in pregnancy metabolic profile are unknown. We investigated association between a composite measure of SEP and pregnancy metabolic profile in W...

Background Prenatal urban environmental exposures have been associated with blood pressure in children. The dynamic of these associations across childhood and later ages is unknown. Objectives The purpose of this study was to assess associations of prenatal urban environmental exposures with blood pressure trajectories from childhood to early adul...

Background Higher maternal pre-pregnancy body mass index (BMI) is associated with adverse pregnancy and perinatal outcomes. However, whether these associations are causal remains unclear. Methods We explored the relation of maternal pre-/early-pregnancy BMI with 20 pregnancy and perinatal outcomes by integrating evidence from three different appro...

Purpose To test associations between children’s attendance of non-parental childcare prior to school entry and internalising and externalising symptoms throughout childhood and young adolescence. Methods Data come from six parent-offspring prospective birth cohort studies across five European countries within the EU Child Cohort Network. A two-stag...

The European Commission asked EFSA to update its 2011 risk assessment on polybrominated diphenyl ethers (PBDEs) in food, focusing on 10 congeners: BDE‐28, ‐47, ‐49, ‐99, ‐100, ‐138, ‐153, ‐154, ‐183 and ‑209. The CONTAM Panel concluded that the neurodevelopmental effects on behaviour and reproductive/developmental effects are the critical effects i...

Higher birth order is associated with altered risk of many disease states. Changes in placentation and exposures to in utero growth factors with successive pregnancies may impact later life disease risk via persistent DNA methylation alterations. We investigated birth order with Illumina DNA methylation array data in each of 16 birth cohorts (8164...

Background Early life determinants of the development of gut microbiome composition in infants have been widely investigated; however, if early life pollutant exposures, such as tobacco or mercury, have a persistent influence on the gut microbial community, its stabilization at later childhood remains largely unknown. Objective In this exposome-wi...

Background: Prenatal caffeine exposure may influence offspring health via DNA methylation, but no large studies have tested this. Materials & methods: Epigenome-wide association studies and differentially methylated regions in cord blood (450k or EPIC Illumina arrays) were meta-analyzed across six European cohorts (n = 3725). Differential methylati...

Neurodevelopmental disorders are increasing globally, and metal exposure may play a significant role as an environmental factor. This cross-sectional study aimed to identify metal mixture patterns and assess their impact on children’s neurodevelopment. Data from 962 children (aged 4–5 years) participating in the Spanish INMA cohort study were analy...

Background We aimed to assess the impact of the chemical exposome on the health of European children since previous health impact assessments (HIA) were limited to a few chemicals. Methods 74 out of 484 substance-outcome associations had an overall level of evidence at least likely and were therefore considered for HIA. For 51 of the 74 associatio...

International sharing of cohort data for research is important and challenging. We explored the feasibility of multi-cohort federated analyses by examining associations between three pregnancy exposures (maternal education, exposure to green vegetation and gestational diabetes) with offspring BMI from infancy to 17 years. We used data from 18 cohor...

The exposome concept aims to consider all environmental stressors simultaneously. The dimension of the data and the correlation that may exist between exposures lead to various statistical challenges. Some methodological studies have provided insight regarding the efficiency of specific modeling approaches in the context of exposome data assessed o...

Background Energy balance‐related behaviours (EBRBs), that is, dietary intake, screen, outdoor play and sleep, tend to combine into ‘lifestyle patterns’, with potential synergistic influences on health. To date, studies addressing this theme mainly focused on school children and rarely accounted for sleep, with a cross‐country perspective. Objecti...

Background: Prenatal exposure to endocrine-disrupting chemicals (EDCs) may disrupt normal fetal and postnatal growth. Studies have mainly focused on individual aspects of growth at specific time points using single chemical exposure models. However, humans are exposed to multiple EDCs simultaneously, and growth is a dynamic process. Objective: T...

OBJECTIVE Dietary glycemic index (GI) and glycemic load (GL) are associated with cardiometabolic health in children and adolescents, with potential distinct effects in people with increased BMI. DNA methylation (DNAm) may mediate these effects. Thus, we conducted meta-analyses of epigenome-wide association studies (EWAS) between dietary GI and GL a...

Background: Attention-deficit/hyperactivity disorder (ADHD) is a prevalent and highly heritable neurodevelopmental disorder of major societal concern. Diagnosis can be challenging and there are large knowledge gaps regarding its etiology, though studies suggest an interplay of genetic and environmental factors involving epigenetic mechanisms. Micr...

Per- and polyfluoroalkyl substances (PFAS) are water-soluble chemicals of concern due to their persistence, ubiquity, and toxicity. We explored correlations between drinking water and blood PFAS levels in a subset of the mother-child Barcelona Life Study Cohort (BiSC), Barcelona, Spain (2021). For 105 study participants, we analyzed 35 PFAS in tap...