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Brain & Nervous System

Maternal cell phone and cordless phone use during pregnancy and behaviour problems in 5-year-old children.

No Effects Found

Guxens M, van Eijsden M, Vermeulen R, Loomans E, Vrijkotte TG, Komhout H, van Strien RT, Huss A. · 2013

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Dutch study of 2,618 children found no significant link between maternal phone use during pregnancy and behavioral problems at age 5.

Plain English Summary

Summary written for general audiences

Researchers followed 2,618 Dutch children to see if mothers' cell phone and cordless phone use during pregnancy affected their children's behavior at age 5. They found no significant link between prenatal phone exposure and behavioral problems, whether reported by teachers or mothers. The study suggests that maternal phone use during pregnancy does not increase the likelihood of behavioral issues in young children.

Study Details

We assessed the association between maternal cell phone and cordless phone use during pregnancy and teacher-reported and maternal-reported child behaviour problems at age 5.

The study was embedded in the Amsterdam Born Children and their Development study, a population-base...

A total of 2618 children were included. As compared to non-users, those exposed to prenatal cell pho...

Our results do not suggest that maternal cell phone or cordless phone use during pregnancy increases the odds of behaviour problems in their children.

Cite This Study
Guxens M, van Eijsden M, Vermeulen R, Loomans E, Vrijkotte TG, Komhout H, van Strien RT, Huss A. (2013). Maternal cell phone and cordless phone use during pregnancy and behaviour problems in 5-year-old children. J Epidemiol Community Health. 2013 Feb 5.
Show BibTeX
@article{m_2013_maternal_cell_phone_and_3055,
  author = {Guxens M and van Eijsden M and Vermeulen R and Loomans E and Vrijkotte TG and Komhout H and van Strien RT and Huss A.},
  title = {Maternal cell phone and cordless phone use during pregnancy and behaviour problems in 5-year-old children.},
  year = {2013},
  
  url = {https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/23386674/},
}
PubMed: 23386674

Cited By (36 papers)

View all 36 citing papers on Semantic Scholar

Quick Questions About This Study

A 2013 Dutch study of 2,618 children found no significant link between mothers' cordless phone use during pregnancy and behavioral problems in 5-year-olds. The research suggests cordless phone exposure during pregnancy does not increase behavioral issues in children.
Research following 2,618 Dutch children found no significant association between daily maternal cell phone use during pregnancy and behavioral problems at age 5. Even mothers making 5+ calls daily showed no increased risk of childhood behavioral issues.
A 2013 study found no statistically significant increase in teacher-reported behavioral problems among 5-year-olds whose mothers used cell phones during pregnancy. The slight increases observed were not significant and showed no dose-response pattern with call frequency.
Dutch researchers studied 2,618 children to examine whether maternal cell phone and cordless phone use during pregnancy affected behavior at age 5. This large sample size strengthens the study's finding of no significant behavioral effects.
The 2013 Dutch study found no dose-response relationship between call frequency and behavioral problems. Children whose mothers made fewer than 1 call daily showed similar outcomes to those whose mothers made 5+ calls daily.