Incense burning during pregnancy and birth weight and head circumference among term births: The Taiwan birth cohort study

• Main Authors: CHEN, Le-Yu, HO, Christine
• Format: text
• Language: English
• Published: Institutional Knowledge at Singapore Management University 2016
• Subjects: Asian Studies; Health Economics; Public Economics
• Online Access: https://ink.library.smu.edu.sg/soe_research/1776; https://ink.library.smu.edu.sg/context/soe_research/article/2776/viewcontent/ehp.1509922.alt.pdf; https://ink.library.smu.edu.sg/context/soe_research/article/2776/filename/0/type/additional/viewcontent/ehp.1509922.s001.acco.pdf
• Institution: Singapore Management University

Incense burning for rituals or religious purposes is an important tradition in many countries. However, incense smoke contains particulate matter and gas products such as carbon monoxide, sulfur and nitrogen dioxide, which are potentially harmful to health. We analyzed the relationship between prenatal incense burning and birth weight and head circumference at birth using the Taiwan Birth Cohort Study. We performed multivariate regression analysis on a sample of 15,773 Taiwanese babies born in 2005 and controlled extensively for factors that may be correlated with incense burning and birth outcomes. Prenatal incense burning environment was associated with lower birth weight and smaller head circumference at birth, especially for boys and especially for the lower quantiles of the distributions of birth outcomes.