Neurodevelopment of Amazonian Infants: Antenatal and Postnatal Exposure to Methyl- and Ethylmercury

Table 1

General characteristics of families and respective infants in the study.

	Mean (SD)			𝑃
Communities	Itapuã	Bom Futuro	Porto Velho
Family
Fish meal, week^a	2.63 (2.70)	2.4 (1.4)	1.97 (2.8)	<0.000
Family income US$	227.93 (193.9)	225.2 (146.1)	247.30 (301.8)	0.4771
Maternal education, y	6.56 (3.49)	6 (2.7)	8.7 (3.5)	<0.000
Children
𝑛	33	166	82
Birth
Weight (g)	3445.0 (510.9)	3278.5 (462.8)	3233.2 (421.6)	0.0787
Length (cm)	50.7 (2.7)	50.8 (2.6)	49.8 (2.4)	<0.000
Age at visit, months	3.7 (1.7)	2.8 (1.5)	6	N.T.^c
Breastfeeding score %^b	96.1 (16.9)	81.0 (32.6)	100	<0.000
W/H Z-scores	0.16 (1.3)	0.03 (1.4)	−1.22 (1.2)	<0.000
H/A Z-scores	−0.27 (1.5)	0.52 (0.8)	0.38 (1.3)	0.001
W/A Z-scores	−0.22 (1.2)	0.22 (0.9)	−0.77 (0.7)	<0.000
TCV-Hg, μg	41.7 (29.8)	42.4 (24.5)	150	<0.000
Infant’s hair Hg, μg·g^−1	3.95 (1.8)	1.85 (0.9)	3.84 (5.5)	<0.000

^aNumber of fish meals a week; ^bbreastfeeding score = age of infant in days/breastfeeding days × 100; ^cN.T., not tested per se but as age-dependent variable for anthropometry and breastfeeding scores; W/H: weight for height; H/A: height for age, W/A: weight for age; TCV: uptake of mercury in thimerosal-containing vaccines.