Background: Although the risk of concurrent exposure of maternal stress and high lead or selenium deficiency during pregnancy often is assumed to be high among city immigrant women, population-based data are lacking. AIMS: We aimed to address this gap to investigate the concurrent exposure of maternal stress and high lead or low selenium in Shanghai pregnant women. METHODS: A stratified cluster sampling methodology was used to investigate 1675 pregnant women in Shanghai in 2011. Pregnant women were divided into three groups according to numbers of years of continuous stay in Shanghai (≥5years, 2～5years, and ≤2years). Maternal blood lead and serum selenium concentrations were tested. High lead and low selenium exposure levels were respectively defined as the upper (P75 - P100) and the lower (P0 - P25) quartiles. Maternal event stress and emotional stress were tested by self-administered questionnaires respectively using "Event Stress Scale for pregnant women" and SCL-90 Scale. RESULTS: The "＜2years" group has the highest blood lead and highest event stress and emotional stress levels, while the "≥5years" group has the least levels (all p＜0.05). In addition, the "＜2years" group has the least serum selenium, while the "≥5years" group has the highest levels (p＜0.05). After controlling maternal age, social-economic status, district and 6MI, compared with the "≥5years" group, the "＜2years" group had a higher risk to develop maternal low selenium and event and emotional stress, but no significant risk of maternal high blood lead (for low selenium, ORs=1.95, 95% CI: 1.22-3.11; for event stress, ORs=1.60, 95% CI: 1.02-2.55; for phobic anxiety, ORs=2.50, 95% CI: 1.39-4.50; for interpersonal sensitivity, ORs=1.75, 95% CI: 1.02-3.14). CONCLUSIONS: Recent immigrant pregnant women in Shanghai are at high risk of developing concurrent exposure of maternal stress and selenium deficiency, but not the co-exposure of maternal stress and high blood lead.
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