Dataset Information

Incense Burning during Pregnancy and Birth Weight and Head Circumference among Term Births: The Taiwan Birth Cohort Study.

ABSTRACT:

Background

Incense burning for rituals or religious purposes is an important tradition in many countries. However, incense smoke contains particulate matter and gas products such as carbon monoxide, sulfur, and nitrogen dioxide, which are potentially harmful to health.

Objectives

We analyzed the relationship between prenatal incense burning and birth weight and head circumference at birth using the Taiwan Birth Cohort Study. We also analyzed whether the associations varied by sex and along the distribution of birth outcomes.

Methods

We performed ordinary least squares (OLS) and quantile regressions analysis on a sample of 15,773 term births (> 37 gestational weeks; 8,216 boys and 7,557 girls) in Taiwan in 2005. The associations were estimated separately for boys and girls as well as for the population as a whole. We controlled extensively for factors that may be correlated with incense burning and birth weight and head circumference, such as parental religion, demographics, and health characteristics, as well as pregnancy-related variables.

Results

Findings from fully adjusted OLS regressions indicated that exposure to incense was associated with lower birth weight in boys (-18 g; 95% CI: -36, -0.94) but not girls (1 g; 95% CI: -17, 19; interaction p-value = 0.31). Associations with head circumference were negative for boys (-0.95 mm; 95% CI: -1.8, -0.16) and girls (-0.71 mm; 95% CI: -1.5, 0.11; interaction p-values = 0.73). Quantile regression results suggested that the negative associations were larger among the lower quantiles of birth outcomes.

Conclusions

OLS regressions showed that prenatal incense burning was associated with lower birth weight for boys and smaller head circumference for boys and girls. The associations were more pronounced among the lower quantiles of birth outcomes. Further research is necessary to confirm whether incense burning has differential effects by sex.

Citation

Chen LY, Ho C. 2016. Incense burning during pregnancy and birth weight and head circumference among term births: The Taiwan Birth Cohort Study. Environ Health Perspect 124:1487-1492;?http://dx.doi.org/10.1289/ehp.1509922.

SUBMITTER: Chen LY

PROVIDER: S-EPMC5010412 | biostudies-literature | 2016 Sep

REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature

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Publications

Incense Burning during Pregnancy and Birth Weight and Head Circumference among Term Births: The Taiwan Birth Cohort Study.

Chen Le-Yu LY Ho Christine C

Environmental health perspectives 20160311 9

<h4>Background</h4>Incense burning for rituals or religious purposes is an important tradition in many countries. However, incense smoke contains particulate matter and gas products such as carbon monoxide, sulfur, and nitrogen dioxide, which are potentially harmful to health.<h4>Objectives</h4>We analyzed the relationship between prenatal incense burning and birth weight and head circumference at birth using the Taiwan Birth Cohort Study. We also analyzed whether the associations varied by sex ...[more]

PMID: 26967367

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Project description:BackgroundExposure to heat during pregnancy has been associated with reduced fetal growth. Less is known about associations with cold and the potential for critical time windows of exposure.ObjectivesWe aimed to evaluate, in a national retrospective cohort, critical windows of susceptibility during pregnancy to extreme temperatures (low and high) and fetal growth, among 624,940 singleton term births in Israel during the period 2010-2014.MethodsTemperature exposures were estimated using a spatially refined gridded climate data set with a 1-h and 1-km2 resolution. Percentiles of temperature were categorized by climatic zone for the entire pregnancy and by trimesters and weeks. Generalized additive models with the distributed lag nonlinear model framework were used to estimate unadjusted and adjusted associations between percentiles and categories of temperature and fetal growth markers: term [births after 36 weeks of gestational age (GA)] mean birth weight and term low birth weight (tLBW, term infants with birth weight below 2,500g).ResultsAfter adjustment, extreme temperatures (percentiles) during the entire pregnancy were associated with a lower mean birth weight {≤10th vs. 41st-50th percentile: -56g [95% confidence interval (CI): -63g, -50g)]; >90th vs. 41st-50th percentile: -65g; 95% CI: -72g, -58g}. Similar inverse U-shaped patterns were observed for all trimesters, with stronger associations for heat than for cold and for exposures during the third trimester. For heat, results suggest critical windows between 3-9 and 19-34 GA-weeks, with the strongest association estimated at 3 GA-weeks (temperature >90th vs. 41st-50th percentiles: -3.8g; 95% CI: -7.1g, -0.4g). For cold, there was a consistent trend of null associations early in pregnancy and stronger inverse associations over time, with the strongest association at 36 GA-week (≤10th vs. 41st-50th percentiles: -2.9g; 95% CI: -6.5g, 0.7g). For tLBW, U-shape patterns were estimated for the entire pregnancy and third trimester exposures, as well as nonsignificant associations with heat for 29-36 GA-weeks. Generally, the patterns of associations with temperatures during the entire pregnancy were consistent when stratified by urbanicity and geocoding hierarchy, when estimated for daily minimum and maximum temperatures, when exposures were classified based on temperature distributions in 49 natural regions, and when estimated for all live births.DiscussionFindings from our study of term live births in Israel (2010-2014) suggest that exposure to extreme temperatures, especially heat, during specific time windows may result in reduced fetal growth. https://doi.org/10.1289/EHP8117.

Dataset Information

Incense Burning during Pregnancy and Birth Weight and Head Circumference among Term Births: The Taiwan Birth Cohort Study.

Background

Objectives

Methods

Results

Conclusions

Citation

Publications

Incense Burning during Pregnancy and Birth Weight and Head Circumference among Term Births: The Taiwan Birth Cohort Study.

Similar Datasets

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