Evidence map›Paper›PMID 28545137›Full record

ArticlePloS one2017

Re-examining the association between residential exposure to magnetic fields from power lines and childhood asthma in the Danish National Birth Cohort.

Madhuri Sudan, Onyebuchi A Arah, Thomas Becker, Yael Levy, Torben Sigsgaard, Jørn Olsen, Ximena Vergara, Leeka Kheifets

Open access · goldAbstract read
In one paragraph

Article in PloS one, 2017. The graph could read no effect estimate from its abstract, so it casts no vote on the map. Cited by 1 paper.

0numbers the graph read from it
0cells of the map it votes in
1citing papers in PubMed
–field-weighted citation impact, top 93% of its field
1 · What the graph read from 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.

2 · The registry

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.

3 · Its place in the literature

Who cites it

1 citing paper in PubMed, 3 citations in OpenAlex.

  1. Article
4 · The record

Corrections and comments

PubMed lists nothing against this paper. Absence here is not a guarantee, only a check that was made.

5 · Who and what money

Authors and funding

8 authors at 4 institutions in 3 countries.

Madhuri SudanDepartment of Epidemiology, UCLA Fielding School of Public Health, Los Angeles, California, United States of America.ORCID http://orcid.org/0000-0002-9160-9203
Onyebuchi A ArahDepartment of Epidemiology, UCLA Fielding School of Public Health, Los Angeles, California, United States of America.
Thomas BeckerDepartment of Environmental Science, Aarhus University, Aarhus, Denmark.
Yael LevyKipper Institute of Immunology and Allergy, Schneider Children's Medical Center of Israel, Petach Tikvah, Israel.
Torben SigsgaardDepartment of Public Health, Aarhus University, Aarhus, Denmark.
Jørn OlsenDepartment of Clinical Epidemiology, Aarhus University, Aarhus, Denmark.
Ximena VergaraEnvironment Sector, Electric Power Research Institute (EPRI), Palo Alto, California, United States of America.
Leeka KheifetsDepartment of Epidemiology, UCLA Fielding School of Public Health, Los Angeles, California, United States of America.
Aarhus University · DKUCLA Health · USElectric Power Research Institute · USSchneider Children's Medical Center · IL

Funding

No grant is acknowledged in the PubMed record.

6 · The paper itself

Abstract

backgroundA study reported an increased risk of asthma in children whose mothers were exposed to magnetic field (MF) levels above 0.2 μT during pregnancy. We re-examined this association using data from mothers and children in the Danish National Birth Cohort (DNBC).

methodsThis study included 92,676 singleton-born children and their mothers from the DNBC. MF exposure from power lines was estimated for all residences where the mothers lived during pregnancy and for all children from birth until the end of follow up. Exposure was categorized into 0 μT, 0.1 μT, and ≥ 0.2 μT for analysis. Definitive and possible asthma cases were identified using data from three independent data sources: 1) mothers' reports, 2) a national hospitalization register, 3) a national prescription drug register. We calculated hazard ratios (HR) and 95% confidence intervals (CI) for the association between the highest level of exposure during pregnancy and asthma in children, adjusting for several potential confounding factors. We also examined the sensitivity of the risk estimates to changes in exposure and outcome definitions.

resultsNo differences or trends in the risk of asthma development were detected between children with different levels of MF exposure regardless of the asthma case definition or outcome data source. For definitive cases, the HR (95% CI) for those with any exposure was 0.72 (0.27-1.92), and it was 0.41 (0.06-2.92) for those exposed to ≥ 0.2 μT. Adjustments for confounding and variations in the exposure definition did not appreciably alter the results.

conclusionWe did not find evidence that residential exposure to MF during pregnancy or early childhood increased the risk of childhood asthma. This interpretation is in line with the lack of an established biological mechanism directly linking MF exposure to asthma, but high exposure was very rare in this cohort.

Indexed as

Magnetic FieldsAdultAsthmaChildChild, PreschoolDenmarkFemaleHumansMaleMaternal ExposurePregnancyProportional Hazards ModelsRisk FactorsSmoking

Identifiers

PMID28545137
PMCPMC5435231
OpenAlexW2616244027

What OpenQuestion holds

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LicenceCC BY
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Registered trials

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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.