Maternal occupational noise exposure during pregnancy and children's early language acquisition.

Abstract

IntroductionNoise exposure during pregnancy may affect a child's auditory system, which may disturb fetal learning and language development. We examined the impact of occupational noise exposure during pregnancy on children's language acquisition at the age of one.MethodsA cohort study was conducted among women working in the food industry, as kindergarten teachers, musicians, dental nurses, or pharmacists who had a child aged 79 dB; N = 120).ResultsAmong the boys, the adjusted mean differences in language acquisition scores were -0.4 (95% CI -2.5, 1.8) for low, and -0.7 (95% CI -2.9, 1.4) for moderate/high exposure compared to no exposure. Among the girls the respective scores were +0.1 (95% CI -2.2, 2.5) and -0.1 (95% CI -2.3, 2.2). Among the children of kindergarten teachers, who were mainly exposed to human noise, low or moderate exposure was associated with lower language acquisition scores. The adjusted mean differences were -3.8 (95% CI -7.2, -0.4) for low and -4.9 (95% CI -8.6, -1.2) for moderate exposure.ConclusionsIn general, we did not detect an association between maternal noise exposure and children's language acquisition among one-year-old children. However, the children of kindergarten teachers exposed to human noise had lower language acquisition scores than the children of the non-exposed participants. These suggestive findings merit further investigation by level and type of exposure.