Utrecht University, Institute for Risk Assessment Sciences, Utrecht, the Netherlands.
PBL Netherlands Environmental Assessment Agency, Bezuidenhoutseweg 30, 2594 AV The Hague, the Netherlands.
Sci Total Environ. 2023 Jan 15;856(Pt 2):159240. doi: 10.1016/j.scitotenv.2022.159240. Epub 2022 Oct 6.
Some individuals attribute health complaints to radiofrequency electromagnetic field (RF-EMF) exposure. This condition, known as idiopathic environmental intolerance attributed to RF-EMFs (IEI-RF) or electromagnetic hypersensitivity (EHS), can be disabling for those who are affected. In this study we assessed factors related to developing, maintaining, or discarding IEI-RF over the course of 10 years, and predictors of developing EHS at follow-up using a targeted question without the condition of reporting health complaints attributed to RF-EMF exposure.
Participants (n = 892, mean age 50 at baseline, 52 % women) from the Dutch Occupational and Environmental Health Cohort Study AMIGO filled in questionnaires in 2011/2012 (T), 2013 (T), and 2021 (T) where information pertaining to perceived RF-EMF exposure and risk, non-specific symptoms, sleep problems, IEI-RF, and EHS was collected. We fitted multi-state Markov models to represent how individuals transitioned between states ("yes", "no") of IEI-RF.
At each time point, about 1 % of study participants reported health complaints that they attributed to RF-EMF exposure. While this percentage remained stable, the individuals who reported such complaints changed over time: of nine persons reporting health complaints at T, only one reported IEI-RF at both T and T, and two newly reported health complaints at T. Overall, participants had a 95 % chance of transitioning from "yes" to "no" over a time course of 10 years, and a chance of 1 % of transitioning from "no" to "yes". Participants with high perceived RF-EMF exposure and risk had a general tendency to move more frequently between states.
We observed a low prevalence of IEI-RF in our population. Prevalence did not vary strongly over time but there was a strong aspect of change: over 10 years, there was a high probability of not attributing symptoms to RF-EMF exposure anymore. IEI-RF appears to be a more transient condition than previously assumed.
一些人将健康问题归因于射频电磁场（RF-EMF）暴露。这种情况被称为特发性环境因素不耐受归因于 RF-EMF（IEI-RF）或电磁超敏反应（EHS），对于受影响的人来说可能会导致残疾。在这项研究中，我们评估了与 10 年内出现、维持或放弃 IEI-RF 相关的因素，以及使用无报告 RF-EMF 暴露相关健康问题条件的定向问题预测在随访中出现 EHS 的预测因素。
来自荷兰职业和环境健康队列研究 AMIGO 的参与者（n = 892，基线时平均年龄为 50 岁，52%为女性）于 2011/2012 年（T）、2013 年（T）和 2021 年（T）填写了问卷，其中收集了有关感知 RF-EMF 暴露和风险、非特异性症状、睡眠问题、IEI-RF 和 EHS 的信息。我们拟合了多状态马尔可夫模型来表示个体在 IEI-RF 状态（“是”、“否”）之间的转移情况。
在每个时间点，约有 1%的研究参与者报告了他们归因于 RF-EMF 暴露的健康问题。虽然这一百分比保持稳定，但报告此类问题的个体随着时间的推移而变化：在 T 时报告健康问题的九人中，只有一人在 T 和 T 时报告了 IEI-RF，两人在 T 时报告了新的健康问题。总体而言，参与者在 10 年的时间内从“是”到“否”的转移概率为 95%，从“否”到“是”的转移概率为 1%。感知 RF-EMF 暴露和风险较高的参与者更倾向于在状态之间频繁转移。
我们在人群中观察到 IEI-RF 的患病率较低。患病率随时间变化不大，但变化幅度较大：在 10 年内，不再将症状归因于 RF-EMF 暴露的可能性很高。IEI-RF 似乎比以前认为的更为短暂。
