The Relationship between Early Childhood Blood Lead Levels and Performance on End-of-Grade Tests

Citation

Miranda, Marie Lynn; Kim, Dohyeong; Galeano, M. Alicia Overstreet; Paul, Christopher J.; Hull, Andrew P.; & Morgan, S. Philip (2007). The Relationship between Early Childhood Blood Lead Levels and Performance on End-of-Grade Tests. Environmental Health Perspectives, 115(8), 1242-1247. PMCID: PMC1940087

Abstract

Background: Childhood lead poisoning remains a critical environmental health concern. Low-level lead exposure has been linked to decreased performance on standardized IQ tests for school-aged children.
Objective: In this study we sought to determine whether blood lead levels in early childhood are related to educational achievement in early elementary school as measured by performance on end-of-grade (EOG) testing.
Methods: Educational testing data for 4th-grade students from the 2000–2004 North Carolina Education Research Data Center were linked to blood lead surveillance data for seven counties in North Carolina and then analyzed using exploratory and multivariate statistical methods.
Results: The discernible impact of blood lead levels on EOG testing is demonstrated for early childhood blood lead levels as low as 2

URL

http://dx.doi.org/10.1289/ehp.9994

Reference Type

Journal Article

Year Published

2007

Journal Title

Environmental Health Perspectives

Author(s)

Miranda, Marie Lynn
Kim, Dohyeong
Galeano, M. Alicia Overstreet
Paul, Christopher J.
Hull, Andrew P.
Morgan, S. Philip

PMCID

PMC1940087