Abstract
BackgroundThe Japan Environment and Children’s Study (JECS) is a nation-wide birth cohort study investigating environmental effects on children’s health and development. In this study, the exposure characteristics of the JECS participating mothers were summarized using two questionnaires administered during pregnancy.MethodsWomen were recruited during the early period of their pregnancy. We intended to administer the questionnaire during the first trimester (MT1) and the second/third trimester (MT2). The total number of registered pregnancies was 103,099.ResultsThe response rates of the MT1 and MT2 questionnaires were 96.8% and 95.1%, respectively. The mean gestational ages (SDs) at the time of the MT1 and MT2 questionnaire responses were 16.4 (8.0) and 27.9 (6.5) weeks, respectively. The frequency of participants who reported “lifting something weighing more than 20 kg” during pregnancy was 5.3% for MT1 and 3.9% for MT2. The Cohen kappa scores ranged from 0.07 to 0.54 (median 0.31) about the occupational chemical use between MT1 and MT2 questionnaires. Most of the participants (80%) lived in either wooden detached houses or steel-frame collective housing. More than half of the questionnaire respondents answered that they had “mold growing somewhere in the house”. Insect repellents and insecticides were used widely in households: about 60% used “moth repellent for clothes in the closet,” whereas 32% applied “spray insecticide indoors” or “mosquito coil or an electric mosquito repellent mat.”ConclusionsWe summarized the exposure characteristics of the JECS participants using two maternal questionnaires during pregnancy.
Highlights
The Japan Environment and Children’s Study (JECS) is a nation-wide birth cohort study investigating environmental effects on children’s health and development
We describe the environmental exposures of the JECS participants using two maternal questionnaires during pregnancy
We summarized two maternal questionnaires, i.e., the questionnaire intended to be administered during the first trimester (MT1) and that during the second/third trimester (MT2)
Summary
The Japan Environment and Children’s Study (JECS) is a nation-wide birth cohort study investigating environmental effects on children’s health and development. The Japan Environment and Children’s Study (JECS) is a nation-wide birth cohort study initiated in 2011. JECS aims to investigate relationships between environmental factors and children’s health and development by recruiting 100,000 expectant mothers [1,2,3]. The exposures during the prenatal period were assessed using self-administered questionnaires and biological samples collected from the mothers during the first trimester, during the second/third trimester, and after delivery. Postnatal exposures were assessed mainly using questionnaires administered to the mothers every 6 months after birth [1]. Exposure assessment during the prenatal and postnatal period in a birth cohort study is critical to investigate the effect of the environment on children’s health because their developing organs are susceptible to various
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