ORIGINAL RESEARCH article
Front. Public Health
Sec. Environmental Health and Exposome
Volume 13 - 2025 | doi: 10.3389/fpubh.2025.1597489
This article is part of the Research TopicNew Environmental Pollutants, Aging, and Age-Related DiseasesView all 6 articles
Associations of urinary phthalate metabolites with Circadian Syndrome: Evidence from NHANES
Provisionally accepted
- 1Guilin Medical University, Guilin, China
- 2The Second Affiliated Hospital of Guilin Medical University, Guilin, Guangxi Zhuang Region, China
- 3Liuzhou Traditional Chinese Medical Hospital, Liuzhou, Guangxi Zhuang Region, China
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The relationship between phthalate exposure and circadian rhythm disruption lacks epidemiological evidence. This study investigated the association between exposure to ten phthalates (PAEs) and Circadian Syndrome (CircS) among American adults.Methods: Data from the 2013-2018 United States National Health and Nutritional Health Surveys (N = 2519) were analyzed using logistic regression to assess associations between individual phthalate exposure and CircS. Restricted cubic splines (RCS) evaluated dose-response relationships, while Bayesian kernel machine regression (BKMR) and g-computation models assessed the effects of phthalate mixtures.The prevalence of CircS in the study population was 45.14%. Participants in the fourth quartile of exposure to MECP phthalate (OR = 1.632, 95% CI: 1.159-2.300), MEHP phthalate (OR = 1.830, 95% CI: 1.301-2.573), mono-benzyl phthalate (OR = 1.699, 95% CI: 1.156-2.496), and MEOH phthalate (OR = 1.560, 95% CI: 1.065-2.279) had an increased risk of CircS compared to those in the first quartile of exposure. RCS analysis indicated a linear positive association between exposure to MECP, MEHP, and mono-benzyl phthalate and CircS risk. BKMR and quantile g-computation analyses demonstrated that combined phthalate exposure was positively associated with CircS.Individual and mixed exposures to certain phthalates may increase the risk of CircS, providing evidence for prevention strategies targeting endocrine-disrupting chemicals.
Keywords: phthalates, circadian syndrome, BKMR, quantile g-computation, NHANES
Received: 21 Mar 2025; Accepted: 09 Jun 2025.
Copyright: © 2025 Cai, Yi and Shen. This is an open-access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License (CC BY). The use, distribution or reproduction in other forums is permitted, provided the original author(s) or licensor are credited and that the original publication in this journal is cited, in accordance with accepted academic practice. No use, distribution or reproduction is permitted which does not comply with these terms.
* Correspondence: Jiansheng Cai, Guilin Medical University, Guilin, China
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