Maternal Use of Induction Heating Cookers During Pregnancy and Birth Outcomes: The Kyushu Okinawa Maternal and Child...

The effects of exposure to intermediate-frequency electromagnetic fields (IF-EMFs) during pregnancy on birth outcomes are uncertain. We investigated the association between the use of induction heating (IH) cookers, which are major sources of IF-EMFs, during pregnancy and preterm birth (PTB), low birth weight (LBW), small-for-gestational-age (SGA), and birth weight, using data from a prebirth cohort study in Japan. Study participants were 1,565 mothers with singleton pregnancies and the babies born from these pregnancies. We collected the data presented here using self-administered questionnaires. An adjustment was made for maternal age, region of residence, number of children, family structure, maternal education, maternal employment, maternal alcohol intake, smoking during pregnancy, maternal body mass index, baby's sex, and gestational age at birth. IH cooker use during pregnancy was independently associated with a reduced risk of PTB: the adjusted odds ratio was 0.28 (95% confidence interval: 0.07-0.78). IH cooker use during pregnancy was not associated with LBW, SGA, or birth weight. This is the first study to show that IH cooker use during pregnancy is independently inversely associated with PTB.