A follow-up study of the association between mobile phone use and symptoms of ill health

2016 · Harm · Moderate evidence

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HarmModerate evidencePaper 1374

Average call duration and HIT-6 scores decreased significantly over two years. A slight but significant correlation between call duration changes and HIT-6 score changes was found in females but not males. Long-time call users did not show significant reducti…

Study snapshot

Publicationmanual · 2016

Study typecohort

Reported directionHarm

Evidence ratingModerate

Abstract

- A follow-up study of the association between mobile phone use and symptoms of ill health Cho YM, Lim HJ, Jang H, Kim K, Choi JW, Shin C, Lee SK, Kwon JH, Kim N. A follow-up study of the association between mobile phone use and symptoms of ill health. Environ Health Toxicol. 2016 Dec 29. doi: 10.5620/eht.e2017001. Abstract Objectives: The duration and frequency of mobile phone calls, and their relationship with various health effects, have been investigated in our previous cross-sectional study. This two-year period follow-up study after aimed to assess the changes in these variables of same subjects. Methods: The study population comprised 532 non-patient adult subjects sampled from the Korean Genome Epidemiology Study. The subjects underwent a medical examination at a hospital in 2012/2013 and revisited the same hospital in 2014/2015 to have the same examination for the characteristics of mobile phone use performed. In addition, to evaluate the effects on health, the Headache Impact Test-6 (HIT-6), Psychosocial Well-being Index-Short Form (PWI-SF), Beck Depression Inventory (BDI), Korean-Instrumental Activities of Daily Living (K-IADL), Perceived Stress Scale (PSS), Pittsburgh Sleep Quality Index (PSQI), and 12-Item Short Form Health Survey (SF-12) were analyzed. For all these tests, the higher the score, the greater the effect on health. Variances between scores in all the indices in the baseline and follow-up surveys were calculated, and correlations of each index were analyzed. Results: The average duration per call and HIT-6 score of the subjects decreased significantly compared with those recorded two years ago. The results showed a slight but significant correlation between call duration changes and HIT-6 score changes for female subjects, but not for males. HIT-6 scores in the follow-up survey significantly decreased compared to those in the baseline survey, but long-time call users (subjects whose call duration was ≥5 min in both the baseline and follow-up surveys) had no statistically significant reduction in HIT-6 scores. Conclusion: This study suggests that increased call duration is a greater risk factor for increases in headache than any other type of adverse health effect, and that this effect can be chronic. 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 typecohort

Effect directionharm

Population532 non-patient adult subjects from Korean Genome Epidemiology Study

Sample size532

Exposurecall duration, frequency over 2 years

Evidence strengthModerateConfidence: 70% · Peer reviewed: yes

Main findings

Outcomes measured

Headache Impact Test-6 (HIT-6)
Psychosocial Well-being Index-Short Form (PWI-SF)
Beck Depression Inventory (BDI)
Korean-Instrumental Activities of Daily Living (K-IADL)
Perceived Stress Scale (PSS)
Pittsburgh Sleep Quality Index (PSQI)
12-Item Short Form Health Survey (SF-12)

Limitations

No detailed frequency or SAR data provided
Study limited to Korean adult population
Observational design limits causal inference

View raw extracted JSON

{
  "study_type": "cohort",
  "exposure": {
    "band": null,
    "source": "mobile phone",
    "frequency_mhz": null,
    "sar_wkg": null,
    "duration": "call duration, frequency over 2 years"
  },
  "population": "532 non-patient adult subjects from Korean Genome Epidemiology Study",
  "sample_size": 532,
  "outcomes": [
    "Headache Impact Test-6 (HIT-6)",
    "Psychosocial Well-being Index-Short Form (PWI-SF)",
    "Beck Depression Inventory (BDI)",
    "Korean-Instrumental Activities of Daily Living (K-IADL)",
    "Perceived Stress Scale (PSS)",
    "Pittsburgh Sleep Quality Index (PSQI)",
    "12-Item Short Form Health Survey (SF-12)"
  ],
  "main_findings": "Average call duration and HIT-6 scores decreased significantly over two years. A slight but significant correlation between call duration changes and HIT-6 score changes was found in females but not males. Long-time call users did not show significant reduction in HIT-6 scores. Increased call duration is associated with increased headache risk, potentially chronic.",
  "effect_direction": "harm",
  "limitations": [
    "No detailed frequency or SAR data provided",
    "Study limited to Korean adult population",
    "Observational design limits causal inference"
  ],
  "evidence_strength": "moderate",
  "confidence": 0.7,
  "peer_reviewed_likely": "yes",
  "keywords": [
    "mobile phone",
    "call duration",
    "headache",
    "cohort study",
    "health symptoms"
  ],
  "suggested_hubs": [
    {
      "slug": "5g-policy",
      "weight": 0.3,
      "reason": "Study on mobile phone use and health symptoms relevant to mobile technology 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: 10.5620/eht.e2017001
PubMed: Not supplied

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