A study on the effect of prolonged mobile phone use on pure tone audiometry thresholds of medical students of Sikkim

2017 · Harm · Low evidence

← Research stream

HarmLow evidencePaper 1314

Among medical students using mobile phones for the past 5 years, the exposed ear showed significantly different average air conduction and bone conduction hearing thresholds compared with the nonexposed ear (P < 0.05). Significant rises in AC and BC threshold…

Study snapshot

Publicationmanual · 2017

Study typecross_sectional

Reported directionHarm

Evidence ratingLow

Abstract

A study on the effect of prolonged mobile phone use on pure tone audiometry thresholds of medical students of Sikkim Das S, Chakraborty S, Mahanta B. A study on the effect of prolonged mobile phone use on pure tone audiometry thresholds of medical students of Sikkim. J Postgrad Med. 2017 Mar 3. doi: 10.4103/0022-3859.201419. Abstract INTRODUCTION: Mobile phones have become indispensable for daily activities, and people are exposed to them from an early age. There is, however, concern about the harmful effect of the electromagnetic radiation emitted from the mobile phones. OBJECTIVE: The objective of the study was to study the effect of mobile phone on average pure tone audiometry (PTA) threshold of the person and to study the changes in the pure tone threshold at high frequencies such as 2 kHz, 4 kHz, and 8 kHz among the students with prolonged exposure to mobile phones. METHODOLOGY: A cross-sectional study was conducted among the medical students who have been using mobile phones for the past 5 years. The effect of mobile phones on the PTA threshold in the exposed ear and the nonexposed ear was assessed. RESULTS: The study shows that there is a significant difference in average air conduction (AC) and bone conduction (BC) hearing threshold among the exposed and the nonexposed ears (P < 0.05). A significant rise of both AC and BC threshold at individual frequencies between the exposed and the nonexposed ear is also noted in this study. CONCLUSION: The study conducted shows changes in the hearing threshold of the exposed ear when compared with the nonexposed ear. There are however lot of unanswered questions which provide an interesting avenue for further research. Till concrete evidence is available the only feasible way to control its exposure is to limit the duration of usage of mobile phones. ncbi.nlm.nih.gov

Machine Enhanced Logic

AI evidence extraction

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 typecross_sectional

Effect directionharm

PopulationMedical students of Sikkim

Sample sizeNot supplied

ExposureRF · mobile phone use for the past 5 years; prolonged exposure

Evidence strengthLowConfidence: 74% · Peer reviewed: yes

Main findings

Outcomes measured

Pure tone audiometry (PTA) thresholds
Air conduction (AC) hearing threshold
Bone conduction (BC) hearing threshold
Hearing thresholds at 2 kHz, 4 kHz, and 8 kHz

Limitations

Cross-sectional design (as stated)
Sample size not reported in provided abstract
Exposure characterization limited to duration of phone use; no frequency/SAR details provided

View raw extracted JSON

{
  "study_type": "cross_sectional",
  "exposure": {
    "band": "RF",
    "source": "mobile phone",
    "frequency_mhz": null,
    "sar_wkg": null,
    "duration": "mobile phone use for the past 5 years; prolonged exposure"
  },
  "population": "Medical students of Sikkim",
  "sample_size": null,
  "outcomes": [
    "Pure tone audiometry (PTA) thresholds",
    "Air conduction (AC) hearing threshold",
    "Bone conduction (BC) hearing threshold",
    "Hearing thresholds at 2 kHz, 4 kHz, and 8 kHz"
  ],
  "main_findings": "Among medical students using mobile phones for the past 5 years, the exposed ear showed significantly different average air conduction and bone conduction hearing thresholds compared with the nonexposed ear (P < 0.05). Significant rises in AC and BC thresholds at individual frequencies (including 2, 4, and 8 kHz) between exposed and nonexposed ears were also reported.",
  "effect_direction": "harm",
  "limitations": [
    "Cross-sectional design (as stated)",
    "Sample size not reported in provided abstract",
    "Exposure characterization limited to duration of phone use; no frequency/SAR details provided"
  ],
  "evidence_strength": "low",
  "confidence": 0.74,
  "peer_reviewed_likely": "yes",
  "keywords": [
    "mobile phone",
    "electromagnetic radiation",
    "RF exposure",
    "hearing",
    "pure tone audiometry",
    "air conduction",
    "bone conduction",
    "medical students",
    "2 kHz",
    "4 kHz",
    "8 kHz"
  ],
  "suggested_hubs": [
    {
      "slug": "mobile-phones",
      "weight": 0.9,
      "reason": "Study evaluates prolonged mobile phone use and hearing thresholds."
    }
  ]
}

AI can be wrong. Always verify against the paper.

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: 10.4103/0022-3859.201419
PubMed: Not supplied

Read the original paper →

Related papers

← Back to the Research Library