Association between household incense burning and executive function in Chinese children

Abstract

Incense burning is common in Asia including China. Research investigating the association between household incense burning and children's neurodevelopment is scarce. We aimed to examine this association in Chinese children. In 2019, we randomly enrolled 8293 children aged 6-12 years from 5 elementary schools in Guangzhou, southern China. Information on duration and frequency of household incense burning was collected using a questionnaire. Children's executive function was evaluated using the parental report of the Behavioral Rating Inventory of Executive Function. A general linear model was used to assess the associations between incense burning and executive function. Children who occasionally and frequently exposed to incense burning exhibited worse performance on executive function. For example, frequent incense burning was associated with increases in behavioral regulation index (BRI) of 1.77 (95%CI: 0.97, 2.58) points and metacognition index (MI) of 1.40 (95%CI: 0.60, 2.20) points, compared to never incense burning group. Parental smoking and household income were significant modifiers of the associations, with the stronger associations were observed in children having smoking parent(s) and poorer household income. The findings suggest that household incense burning was associated with poorer executive function, especially in children whose parent(s) were smokers and in those with low household income.

Keywords: children; cross-sectional studies; effect modification; executive function; household air pollution; incense burning.