ArticleAmerican journal of public health2015
Community Water Fluoridation and Intelligence: Prospective Study in New Zealand.
Article in American journal of public health, 2015. The graph could read no effect estimate from its abstract, so it casts no vote on the map. Cited by 38 papers, 3 of them syntheses that pooled it.
What it found
Each row is one number read from the abstract, on the scale the paper reported it, with its interval. Left of the dashed line favours the treatment, right favours the comparator. Under each row is the sentence it came from. New to these charts? A ten-minute tutorial.
The abstract states no effect estimate the extractor could read, or names no intervention and outcome on the map, so this paper lights no cell and moves no belief. It is still indexed, cited and linked below.
The trial behind it
Trials whose registry record cites this paper, or whose number appears in the abstract. A trial that started after this paper was published is citing it as background, not reporting it.
Neither the registry nor the abstract names a trial number. If this is a trial report, that itself is worth knowing.
Who cites it
38 citing papers in PubMed, 3 syntheses or guidelines pooled it, 104 citations in OpenAlex.
- Fluoride and Neurodevelopmental Hazard Modelling: An Assessment of Concentration-Response Analysis.Community dentistry and oral epidemiology · 2026Pooled it
- Fluoride Exposure and Children's IQ Scores: A Systematic Review and Meta-Analysis.JAMA pediatrics · 2025Pooled it
- The Relationship between Fluoride Exposure and Cognitive Outcomes from Gestation to Adulthood-A Systematic Review.International journal of environmental research and public health · 2022Pooled it
- Water fluoridation today: - benefits and challenges.Frontiers in oral health · 2026Review
- Article
- The sugar industry's efforts to manipulate research on fluoride effectiveness and toxicity: a ninety-year history.Environmental health : a global access science source · 2025Article
- Updated consumer risk assessment of fluoride in food and drinking water including the contribution from other sources of oral exposure.EFSA journal. European Food Safety Authority · 2025Article
- Article
- Prenatal and Childhood Exposure to Fluoride and Cognitive Development: Findings from the Longitudinal MINIMat Cohort in Rural Bangladesh.Environmental health perspectives · 2025Article
- Epidemiological analysis of drinking water-type fluorosis areas and the impact of fluorosis on children's health in the past 40 years in China.Environmental geochemistry and health · 2023Article
- Association of Dental Fluorosis and Urinary Fluoride with Intelligence among Schoolchildren.Children (Basel, Switzerland) · 2023Article
- A Scoping Review of Iodine and Fluoride in Pregnancy in Relation to Maternal Thyroid Function and Offspring Neurodevelopment.Advances in nutrition (Bethesda, Md.) · 2023Article
- Fluoride in the Central Nervous System and Its Potential Influence on the Development and Invasiveness of Brain Tumours-A Research Hypothesis.International journal of molecular sciences · 2023Review
- A Benchmark Dose Analysis for Maternal Pregnancy Urine-Fluoride and IQ in Children.Risk analysis : an official publication of the Society for Risk Analysis · 2022Article
- Essentiality of Trace Elements in Pregnancy, Fertility, and Gynecologic Cancers-A State-of-the-Art Review.Nutrients · 2021Review
- Dietary fluoride intake during pregnancy and neurodevelopment in toddlers: A prospective study in the progress cohort.Neurotoxicology · 2021Article
- Contribution to the ongoing discussion on fluoride toxicity.Archives of toxicology · 2021Review
- Associations between Urinary, Dietary, and Water Fluoride Concentrations among Children in Mexico and Canada.Toxics · 2020Article
- A Benchmark Dose Analysis for Maternal Pregnancy Urine-Fluoride and IQ in Children.medRxiv : the preprint server for health sciences · 2020Article
- Fluoride exposure and intelligence in school-age children: evidence from different windows of exposure susceptibility.BMC public health · 2020Article
Corrections and comments
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Authors and funding
7 authors at 1 institution in 1 country.
Funding
Abstract
Objectives. This study aimed to clarify the relationship between community water fluoridation (CWF) and IQ. Methods. We conducted a prospective study of a general population sample of those born in Dunedin, New Zealand, between April 1, 1972, and March 30, 1973 (95.4% retention of cohort after 38 years of prospective follow-up). Residence in a CWF area, use of fluoride dentifrice and intake of 0.5-milligram fluoride tablets were assessed in early life (prior to age 5 years); we assessed IQ repeatedly between ages 7 to 13 years and at age 38 years. Results. No clear differences in IQ because of fluoride exposure were noted. These findings held after adjusting for potential confounding variables, including sex, socioeconomic status, breastfeeding, and birth weight (as well as educational attainment for adult IQ outcomes). Conclusions. These findings do not support the assertion that fluoride in the context of CWF programs is neurotoxic. Associations between very high fluoride exposure and low IQ reported in previous studies may have been affected by confounding, particularly by urban or rural status.
Identifiers
What OpenQuestion holds
Registered trials
Read under generation 80e0d062 · epoch 390. Bibliography from PubMed, PubMed Central and OpenAlex; grants from NIH RePORTER; trial links from ClinicalTrials.gov; estimates, votes and beliefs from the OpenQuestion graph.