Cellular Phone User's Age or the Duration of Calls Moderate Autonomic Nervous System? A Meta-Analysis

Advances in experimental medicine and biology · 2020 · Mixed · Low evidence

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MixedLow evidencePaper 1185

This meta-analysis (5 studies; 124 healthy subjects) reported heterogeneity across outcomes (I2=63.2% overall; I2=65.2% for sympathovagal balance). Meta-regression results indicated sympathovagal balance was strongly predicted by age, while minutes of exposur…

Study snapshot

PublicationAdvances in experimental medicine and biology · 2020

Study typemeta_analysis

Reported directionMixed

Evidence ratingLow

Abstract

Cellular Phone User's Age or the Duration of Calls Moderate Autonomic Nervous System? A Meta-Analysis Styliani A Geronikolou, Ӧlle Johansson, George Chrousos, Christina Kanaka-Gantenbein, Dennis Cokkinos. Cellular Phone User's Age or the Duration of Calls Moderate Autonomic Nervous System? A Meta- Analysis. Adv Exp Med Biol. 2020;1194:475-488. doi: 10.1007/978-3-030-32622-7_46. Abstract Background: The European Health Risk Assessment Network on Electromagnetic Fields Exposure (EFHRAN) reported in 2012: "Children and adolescents represent the first generation of Europeans to be exposed to diffuse EMF since their conception and birth, thus, they are expected to be more sensitive to these fields." On the other hand, the body's physiologic processes are regulated by the autonomic nervous system (ANS) in a way that warrants further elucidation. Objective: Age and duration of exposure are investigated for modifying the variance of the reported effects of mobile/cellular phone call (CPC) on ANS indexed, herein, by the heart rate variability (HRV). Method: Five studies targeted to 124 healthy subjects (aged 15.3-28.4 years (24.3 ± 5.2), who have been recorded in supine position before and/or sham versus real exposure (to a CPC lasting 5-32 minutes), are included in this meta-analysis. Age and duration of a CPC are evaluated as predictors in two separate meta- regressions. Results: The meta-analysis identified a heterogeneity I2 = 63.2% for all outcomes and I2 = 65.2% for sympathovagal balance. Thus, we performed meta-regressions: for the sympathovagal balance rather than the combined parameters effect, the goodness of fit model presents significance only for age - the residual sum of squares compared to chi-square distribution (QR) is 4.24 for age (p = 0.12) - while, for minutes of exposure, QR = 8.2805 (p = 0.016). Conclusions: The sympathovagal balance - indispensible for health/homeostasis maintenance - is strongly predicted by age. Minutes of exposure did not affect overall HRV or sympathovagal balance. The results endorse/validate the EFHRAN 2012 suggestion for future research targeting to youngsters. pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov Excerpt ... the effect of age is higher in younger ages (adolescence) and decreases as age increases (Figs. 2a and 3a). This result supports the caution already expressed that the risk for children and adolescents from radiofrequencies exposure needs to be extensively investigated (Akselrod et al. 1981; Hjortskov et al. 2004). Our finding may be either explained in terms of development or in terms of accumulated exposure of each individual to electromagnetic fields even since conception (exposome). Indeed, potential health effects from this technology expansion in pediatric and adolescent populations are suggested by the European Health Risk Assessment Network on Electromagnetic Fields Exposure in its 2012 report (Nam et al. 2011; Morgan et al. 2014a): “These groups represent the first generation of Europeans to be exposed to diffuse EMF fields since conception and birth, thus, are expected to be more sensitive to these fields.” Conclusively, our analysis suggests that (a) minutes of exposure (minutes of speaking on the mobile phone) do not affect the autonomic nervous system of the heart or its sympathovagal balance, (b) age synergizes with other variables (exposome, SAR) so as to explain combined HRV parameter effects, and (c) the sympathovagal balance is strongly predicted by age, implying that adolescents’ autonomic nervous system seems to be more vulnerable to the CPC exposure. Additionally, risk assessment analysis of the additive effects of continuous exposure (exposome) is strongly suggested.

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Structured fields below were generated from the paper’s abstract and metadata to make the evidence easier to inspect. Automated extraction may be incomplete or incorrect; verify important details against the original paper.

Study typemeta_analysis

Effect directionmixed

PopulationHealthy subjects (aged 15.3–28.4 years)

Sample size124

Exposure5–32 minutes (call)

Evidence strengthLowConfidence: 74% · Peer reviewed: yes

Main findings

Outcomes measured

Autonomic nervous system (ANS) measures indexed by heart rate variability (HRV)
Sympathovagal balance

Limitations

Only five studies included
Small total sample size (124 subjects)
Participants limited to healthy subjects aged 15.3–28.4 years
Exposure limited to short call durations (5–32 minutes)
Substantial heterogeneity reported (I2 ~63–65%)

View raw extracted JSON

{
  "study_type": "meta_analysis",
  "exposure": {
    "band": null,
    "source": "mobile phone",
    "frequency_mhz": null,
    "sar_wkg": null,
    "duration": "5–32 minutes (call)"
  },
  "population": "Healthy subjects (aged 15.3–28.4 years)",
  "sample_size": 124,
  "outcomes": [
    "Autonomic nervous system (ANS) measures indexed by heart rate variability (HRV)",
    "Sympathovagal balance"
  ],
  "main_findings": "This meta-analysis (5 studies; 124 healthy subjects) reported heterogeneity across outcomes (I2=63.2% overall; I2=65.2% for sympathovagal balance). Meta-regression results indicated sympathovagal balance was strongly predicted by age, while minutes of exposure did not affect overall HRV or sympathovagal balance.",
  "effect_direction": "mixed",
  "limitations": [
    "Only five studies included",
    "Small total sample size (124 subjects)",
    "Participants limited to healthy subjects aged 15.3–28.4 years",
    "Exposure limited to short call durations (5–32 minutes)",
    "Substantial heterogeneity reported (I2 ~63–65%)"
  ],
  "evidence_strength": "low",
  "confidence": 0.74,
  "peer_reviewed_likely": "yes",
  "keywords": [
    "mobile phone call",
    "cellular phone",
    "radiofrequency",
    "electromagnetic fields",
    "autonomic nervous system",
    "heart rate variability",
    "sympathovagal balance",
    "age",
    "duration",
    "meta-regression",
    "EFHRAN"
  ],
  "suggested_hubs": [
    {
      "slug": "who-icnirp",
      "weight": 0.28,
      "reason": "Discusses EFHRAN 2012 risk assessment context and sensitivity of children/adolescents to EMF exposure."
    }
  ]
}

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AI-extracted fields are generated from the abstract and metadata and may be incomplete or incorrect. This material is for informational purposes and is not medical advice.

Identifiers and source

DOI: 10.1007/978-3-030-32622-7_46
PubMed: 32468564

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