Association between phthalates and sleep problems in the U.S. adult females from NHANES 2011-2014

ABSTRACT

There is little research on the relationship between phthalates exposure and sleep problems in adult females, with existing studies only assessing the association between exposure to individual phthalates with sleep problems.     We aimed to analyse the relationship between phthalates and sleep problems in 1366 US females aged 20 years and older from the 2011-2014 National Health and Nutrition Examination Survey (NHANES) by age stratification. Multivariate logistic regression showed that the fourth quartile of MECPP increased the risk of sleep problems in females aged 20–39 compared with the reference quartile (OR: 1.87, 95% CI: 1.14, 3.08). The WQS index was significantly associated with the sleep problems in females aged 20–39. In the BKMR, a positive overall trend between the mixture and sleep problems in females aged 20–39. In this study, we concluded that phthalates might increase the risk of sleep problems in females aged 20–39.

KEYWORDS:

• Phthalates
• sleep problems
• WQS
• BKMR

Acknowledgements

This study was analyzed using the data provided by the National Health and Nutrition Examination Survey 2011–2014. Data from this survey will be used in epidemiological studies and health sciences research, which helps develop sound public health policy, direct and design health programs and services, and expand the health knowledge for the Nation.

Disclosure statement

No potential conflict of interest was reported by the author(s).

Supplementary material

Supplemental data for this article can be accessed online at https://doi.org/10.1080/09603123.2023.2196056.

Additional information

Funding

The author(s) reported there is no funding associated with the work featured in this article.