- Title
- Availability of arsenic in breast milk, effect of chronic arsenic exposure on type 2 diabetes, hypertension in adults and on children's nutritional status in Bangladesh
- Creator
- Islam, Md. Rafiqul
- Relation
- University of Newcastle Research Higher Degree Thesis
- Resource Type
- thesis
- Date
- 2014
- Description
- Research Doctorate - Doctor of Philosophy (PhD)
- Description
- The discovery of extensive arsenic contamination of groundwater remains a public health concern in Bangladesh. Previous studies demonstrated a positive association with arsenic and numerous other diseases and health conditions including type 2 diabetes and hypertension in adults. There is also a growing body of concern on arsenic excretion via breast milk and the health consequences in children. In the longitudinal study, we observed a low arsenic concentration in breast milk and the concentration was non-normally distributed and the median arsenic concentration in breast milk at all three time points (1, 6 and 9 months of child’s age) were remaining same as 0.5 µg/L. Arsenic in breast milk was non-significantly reduced over time (chapter 3). Arsenite (AsIII), arsenate (AsV), monomethyl arsonic acid (MMA), dimethyl arsinic acid (DMA) and arsenobetaine (AsB) were the constituents of total urinary arsenic; DMA was the predominant arsenic metabolite (approximately 70%) in infant urine at 1 and 6 months. On the other hand, household’s arsenic exposure did not influence malnutrition in infants in the longitudinal study and the results were presented in chapter 4. Ten-percent infants at 3 month and 44% at 6 and 9 month of age were stunted irrespective of their levels of arsenic exposure. Underweight and wasting were the highest at 3 month. Overall wasting (<-2SD) was 23.3% at 3 month and no children were wasted at 6 and 9 month. While overall underweight (<-2SD) was 25% and 10% at 3 and 6 month respectively regardless of the households arsenic exposure levels. We observed differences in stunting at 9 months of age by arsenic exposure levels which might be due to a statistical incongruity and failure to establish differences in terms of other nutritional indicators such as wasting and underweight at other time points of infant’s age could be the resultant of a smaller sample size. While in the data analysis project, we demonstrated a significant association between chronic arsenic exposure and type 2 diabetes. For most levels of arsenic exposure, the risk estimates are higher with longer exposure after adjusting all possible confounders; a dose–response pattern was also observed (chapter 5). On the other hand, we failed to link an association between higher drinking water arsenic or duration with hypertension in the data analysis project (chapter 6) but observed an association with pulse pressure. Arsenic concentration as quartiles and >50 μg/L did show a strong relationship with increased pulse pressure, as did arsenic exposure for ≥10 years. Arsenic as quartiles showed a dose response relationship with increased pulse pressure.
- Subject
- breast milk; breast feeding; type 2 diabetes; hypertension; nutrition; Bangladesh; thesis by publication
- Identifier
- http://hdl.handle.net/1959.13/1043086
- Identifier
- uon:14164
- Rights
- Copyright 2014 Md. Rafiqul Islam
- Language
- eng
- Full Text
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| Thumbnail | File | Description | Size | Format | |||
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| View Details Download | ATTACHMENT01 | Abstract | 162 KB | Adobe Acrobat PDF | View Details Download | ||
| View Details Download | ATTACHMENT02 | Thesis | 1 MB | Adobe Acrobat PDF | View Details Download |