Impact of Microplastic Exposure on Emotional and Behavioral Development in School-Aged Children: the Moderating Role of Diet

At present, the impact of microplastic (MP) exposure on children’s emotional and behavioral development remains unclear. Moreover, empirical research on the potential interaction between MP exposure and dietary patterns is particularly scarce, which constitutes a key research gap in this field. A total of 1234 10-year-old children were enrolled in this cross-sectional study. Laser Direct Infrared spectroscopy was utilized to quantify and identify the types and abundances of MPs in urine samples. We used a multiple linear regression model to analyze the effects of MP exposure and dietary adherence on children’s emotional and behavioral development, and further conducted a stratified analysis based on dietary adherence. The study revealed that the detection rate of MPs among 10-year-old school-aged children reached 91.41