IQ alteration induced by lead in developed and underdeveloped/developing countries: A systematic review and a meta-analysis
Abstract
The aim of this study was to evaluate the effects of Pb exposure on full-scale IQ score in pediatric subjects. Following PRISMA guidelines, the data from January 2010 to April 2020 were systematically searched and collected on electronic databases (PubMed, Scopus, and Embase). The eligibility criteria included cross-sectional, cohort, and case-control studies that were published in English, from 2010 to 2020, that analyzed the blood Pb levels of pediatric subjects (0-19 years) and possible changes in the full-scale IQ score. In this study, 2174 scientific papers were collected from three electronic databases. From those, 726 were duplicates and 1421 were excluded because they did not meet the eligibility criteria, resulting in a total of 27 papers, from which, seven were used to perform the meta-analysis. The 27 scientific papers systematically selected for this study were separated by the country where the study was realized in developed and underdeveloped/developing countries. In the underdeveloped/developing countries the blood Pb levels are higher and showed a greater variation (1.30-11.66 μgPb/dL of blood) than in countries with higher development index (0.57-4.80 μgPb/dL of blood). The full-scale IQ score are inversely proportional to the blood Pb values, and it is possible to see that in the underdeveloped/developing countries the full-scale IQ score showed lower values and greater variation (59.2-111) compared to the individuals from developed countries (91.9-114.5).…
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Environmental factors can clearly decrease putatively inherent IQ.
“there are clearly environmental factors that can decrease putatively inherent IQ.”
From Genes, Heritability, ‘Race’, and Intelligence: Misapprehensions and Implications (2022) · cites this paper as [11]
Cites
PRISMA-P Group, Moher, D., Shamseer, L., Clarke, M., Ghersi, D., Liberati, A., Petticrew, M., Shekelle, P., & Stewart, L. A. (2015) · Systematic Reviews · doi:10.1186/2046-4053-4-1 · Cited by 26,223 · see citing works
ROBINS-I: a tool for assessing risk of bias in non-randomised studies of interventions
Sterne, J. A., Hernán, M. A., Reeves, B. C., Savović, J., Berkman, N. D., Viswanathan, M., Henry, D., Altman, D. G., Ansari, M. T., Boutron, I., et al. (2016) · BMJ · doi:10.1136/bmj.i4919 · Cited by 20,329 · see citing works
Methley, A. M., Campbell, S., Chew-Graham, C., McNally, R., & Cheraghi-Sohi, S. (2014) · BMC Health Services Research · doi:10.1186/s12913-014-0579-0 · Cited by 2,706 · see citing works
Trajectories of brain development: point of vulnerability or window of opportunity?
Andersen, S. L. (2003) · Neuroscience & Biobehavioral Reviews · doi:10.1016/s0149-7634(03)00005-8 · Cited by 1,503 · see citing works
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Genes, Heritability, ‘Race’, and Intelligence: Misapprehensions and Implications
Greenspan, N. S. (2022) · Genes · doi:10.3390/genes13020346 · Cited by 5 · see citing works
“For example, a meta-analysis of studies on environmental lead (abbreviated as Pb by chemists) exposure and IQ published this year presents overall results from seven reports that met the inclusion criteria for the new assessment [11].”
Background
- Authors
- Galiciolli, M. E. A., Lima, L. S., da Costa, N. D. S., de Andrade, D. P., Irioda, A. C., & Oliveira, C. S.
- Corresponding author
- Oliveira, Cláudia S.
- ORCID
- Venue
- Environmental Pollution
- Publisher
- Elsevier BV
- Published
- 2022-01
- Volume
- 292
- Issue
- Pt A
- Pages
- 118316
- ISSN
- 0269-7491 (ISSN-L)
- OpenAlex
- W3207300082
- Cited by
- 33
- References
- 4
- Citations by year
- 2026: 4 · 2025: 7 · 2024: 6 · 2023: 6 · 2022: 10
- FWCI
- 0.52
- Type
- journal article
- Language
- en
- Open access
- closed
- Licence
- Locations
- Environmental Pollution (publishedVersion)
- PubMed (publishedVersion)
- Topics
- Physical Sciences › Environmental Science › Health, Toxicology and Mutagenesis › Heavy Metal Exposure and Toxicity
- Physical Sciences › Environmental Science › Pollution › Heavy metals in environment
- Physical Sciences › Environmental Science › Health, Toxicology and Mutagenesis › Mercury impact and mitigation studies
- Keywords
- lead exposure, blood lead levels, Full Scale IQ, cognitive development, children, developing countries, developed countries, environmental contamination, lead poisoning prevention
- MeSH terms
- Child, Cross-Sectional Studies, Developing Countries, Environmental Pollution, Humans, Intelligence, Cohort Studies
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