Department of Environmental and Occupational Health, College of Medicine, National Cheng Kung University, Tainan 70428, Taiwan.
Occupational safety, Health, and Medicine Research Center, National Cheng Kung University, Tainan 70428, Taiwan.
Environ Res. 2018 Feb;161:329-335. doi: 10.1016/j.envres.2017.11.034. Epub 2017 Nov 26.
Idiopathic environmental intolerance attributed to electromagnetic fields (IEI-EMF) describes symptoms sufferers attribute to exposure to electromagnetic fields (EMF). In Taiwan, the prevalence rate of IEI-EMF was 13.3% in 2007, but a survey using the same method found the rate declined to 4.6% in 2012. Because media reports may encourage readers to attribute their symptoms to EMF, the change might be related to media coverage. We searched articles indexed in the largest newspaper database in Taiwan to evaluate the association between media coverage and the prevalence of IEI-EMF. We also assessed the effects of other potential affecting factors. The number of newspaper articles related to EMF and IEI-EMF increased from 2005 to 2007 and then has been decreasing until 2012, which is compatible with the change in the prevalence of IEI-EMF. However, from 2007 to 2012, the other potential affecting factors such as density of mobile phone base stations, number of mobile phone users, total mobile phone calling time, and number of text messages sent through mobile phones all increased in Taiwan. This finding indicated a positive association between media coverage and the prevalence of IEI-EMF in Taiwan, which might also be true in other countries.
特发性环境敏感症归因于电磁场（IEI-EMF）描述了患者将症状归因于电磁场（EMF）暴露的情况。在台湾，2007 年 IEI-EMF 的患病率为 13.3%，但使用相同方法的调查发现，2012 年这一比例下降到 4.6%。由于媒体报道可能会鼓励读者将自己的症状归因于 EMF，这种变化可能与媒体报道有关。我们检索了台湾最大的报纸数据库中索引的文章，以评估媒体报道与 IEI-EMF 患病率之间的关联。我们还评估了其他潜在影响因素的影响。与 EMF 和 IEI-EMF 相关的报纸文章数量从 2005 年到 2007 年增加，然后一直减少到 2012 年，这与 IEI-EMF 的患病率变化相符。然而，从 2007 年到 2012 年，台湾的其他潜在影响因素，如移动电话基站密度、移动电话用户数量、移动电话总通话时间和通过移动电话发送的短信数量都有所增加。这一发现表明，在台湾，媒体报道与 IEI-EMF 的患病率之间存在正相关关系，这在其他国家也可能是正确的。
