Maternal cell phone use in early pregnancy & child's language, communication & motor skills at 3 & 5 years: Norwegian mother child cohort study

2017 · Mixed · Moderate evidence

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MixedModerate evidencePaper 2342

Study snapshot

Publicationmanual · 2017

Study typecohort

Reported directionMixed

Evidence ratingModerate

Abstract

Maternal cell phone use in early pregnancy & child's language, communication & motor skills at 3 & 5 years: Norwegian mother child cohort study Papadopoulou E, Haugen M, Schjølberg S, Magnus P, Brunborg G, Vrijheid M, Alexander J. Maternal cell phone use in early pregnancy and child's language, communication and motor skills at 3 and 5 years: the Norwegian mother and child cohort study (MoBa). BMC Public Health. 2017 Sep 5;17(1):685. doi: 10.1186/s12889-017- 4672-2. Abstract BACKGROUND: Cell phone use during pregnancy is a public health concern. We investigated the association between maternal cell phone use in pregnancy and child's language, communication and motor skills at 3 and 5 years. METHODS: This prospective study includes 45,389 mother-child pairs, participants of the MoBa, recruited at mid-pregnancy from 1999 to 2008. Maternal frequency of cell phone use in early pregnancy and child language, communication and motor skills at 3 and 5 years, were assessed by questionnaires. Logistic regression was used to estimate the associations. RESULTS: No cell phone use in early pregnancy was reported by 9.8% of women, while 39%, 46.9% and 4.3% of the women were categorized as low, medium and high cell phone users. Children of cell phone user mothers had 17% (OR = 0.83, 95% CI: 0.77, 0.89) lower adjusted risk of having low sentence complexity at 3 years, compared to children of non-users. The risk was 13%, 22% and 29% lower by low, medium and high maternal cell phone use. Additionally, children of cell phone users had lower risk of low motor skills score at 3 years, compared to children of non-users, but this association was not found at 5 years. We found no association between maternal cell phone use and low communication skills. CONCLUSIONS: We reported a decreased risk of low language and motor skills at three years in relation to prenatal cell phone use, which might be explained by enhanced maternal-child interaction among cell phone users. No evidence of adverse neurodevelopmental effects of prenatal cell phone use was reported. ncbi.nlm.nih.gov

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AI evidence extraction

Structured fields below were generated from the paper’s abstract and metadata to make the evidence easier to inspect. Automated extraction may be incomplete or incorrect; verify important details against the original paper.

Study typecohort

Effect directionmixed

PopulationMother-child pairs in the Norwegian Mother and Child Cohort Study (MoBa), recruited at mid-pregnancy (1999–2008)

Sample size45389

ExposureRF · early pregnancy (frequency of use categorized as none/low/medium/high)

Evidence strengthModerateConfidence: 78% · Peer reviewed: yes

Main findings

In 45,389 mother-child pairs, maternal cell phone use in early pregnancy (vs non-use) was associated with a lower adjusted risk of low sentence complexity at 3 years (OR 0.83, 95% CI 0.77–0.89), with lower risk across low/medium/high use categories. Maternal cell phone use was also associated with lower risk of low motor skills score at 3 years but not at 5 years, and there was no association with low communication skills.

Outcomes measured

Child language (sentence complexity) at 3 years
Child communication skills at 3 and 5 years
Child motor skills at 3 and 5 years

Limitations

Exposure (cell phone use frequency) assessed by questionnaire
Child outcomes assessed by questionnaires
Observational design (prospective cohort); residual confounding cannot be excluded

View raw extracted JSON

{
  "study_type": "cohort",
  "exposure": {
    "band": "RF",
    "source": "mobile phone",
    "frequency_mhz": null,
    "sar_wkg": null,
    "duration": "early pregnancy (frequency of use categorized as none/low/medium/high)"
  },
  "population": "Mother-child pairs in the Norwegian Mother and Child Cohort Study (MoBa), recruited at mid-pregnancy (1999–2008)",
  "sample_size": 45389,
  "outcomes": [
    "Child language (sentence complexity) at 3 years",
    "Child communication skills at 3 and 5 years",
    "Child motor skills at 3 and 5 years"
  ],
  "main_findings": "In 45,389 mother-child pairs, maternal cell phone use in early pregnancy (vs non-use) was associated with a lower adjusted risk of low sentence complexity at 3 years (OR 0.83, 95% CI 0.77–0.89), with lower risk across low/medium/high use categories. Maternal cell phone use was also associated with lower risk of low motor skills score at 3 years but not at 5 years, and there was no association with low communication skills.",
  "effect_direction": "mixed",
  "limitations": [
    "Exposure (cell phone use frequency) assessed by questionnaire",
    "Child outcomes assessed by questionnaires",
    "Observational design (prospective cohort); residual confounding cannot be excluded"
  ],
  "evidence_strength": "moderate",
  "confidence": 0.78,
  "peer_reviewed_likely": "yes",
  "keywords": [
    "pregnancy",
    "prenatal exposure",
    "maternal cell phone use",
    "mobile phone",
    "language development",
    "communication skills",
    "motor skills",
    "neurodevelopment",
    "MoBa",
    "prospective cohort"
  ],
  "suggested_hubs": [
    {
      "slug": "mobile-phones-pregnancy",
      "weight": 0.95,
      "reason": "Assesses maternal cell phone use in early pregnancy and child neurodevelopmental outcomes."
    }
  ]
}

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AI-extracted fields are generated from the abstract and metadata and may be incomplete or incorrect. This material is for informational purposes and is not medical advice.

Identifiers and source

DOI: 10.1186/s12889-017
PubMed: Not supplied

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