Long-term effect of mobile phone use on sleep quality: Results from the cohort study of mobile phone use and health (COSMOS)

2020 · Mixed · Moderate evidence

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MixedModerate evidencePaper 1543

Operator-recorded mobile phone use at baseline was not associated with most sleep outcomes over follow-up. In the highest decile of call-time (>258 min/week), insomnia had OR 1.24 (95% CI 1.03–1.51), but after weighting call-time for lower RF-EMF exposure on …

Study snapshot

Publicationmanual · 2020

Study typecohort

Reported directionMixed

Evidence ratingModerate

Abstract

Long-term effect of mobile phone use on sleep quality: Results from the cohort study of mobile phone use and health (COSMOS) Tettamanti G, Auvinen A, Åkerstedt T, Kojo K, Ahlbom A, Heinävaara S, Elliott P, Schüz J, Deltour I, Kromhout H, Toledano MB, Poulsen AH, Johansen C, Vermeulen R, Feychting M, Hillert H, COSMOS Study Group. Long-term effect of mobile phone use on sleep quality: Results from the cohort study of mobile phone use and health (COSMOS). Environment International. doi.org. Highlights • Above median mobile phone call-time was associated with less sleep disturbance. • Above 90th percentile mobile phone call time was associated with insomnia. • Adjustment for network suggests association with insomnia was not due to RF-EMF • Other potential explanations may be related to behavior and psychological factors. Abstract Background Effects of radiofrequency electromagnetic field exposure (RF-EMF) from mobile phone use on sleep quality has mainly been investigated in cross-sectional studies. The few previous prospective cohort studies found no or inconsistent associations, but had limited statistical power and short follow-up. In this large prospective cohort study, our aim was to estimate the effect of RF-EMF from mobile phone use on different sleep outcomes. Materials and methods The study included Swedish (n = 21,049) and Finnish (n = 3120) participants enrolled in the Cohort Study of Mobile Phone Use and Health (COSMOS) with information about operator-recorded mobile phone use at baseline and sleep outcomes both at baseline and at the 4-year follow-up. Sleep disturbance, sleep adequacy, daytime somnolence, sleep latency, and insomnia were assessed using the Medical Outcome Study (MOS) sleep questionnaire. Results Operator-recorded mobile phone use at baseline was not associated with most of the sleep outcomes. For insomnia, an odds ratio (OR) of 1.24, 95% CI 1.03-1.51 was observed in the highest decile of mobile phone call-time (>258 min/week). With weights assigned to call-time to account for the lower RF-EMF exposure from Universal Mobile Telecommunications Service (UMTS, 3G) than from Global System for Mobile Communications (GSM, 2G) the OR was 1.09 (95% CI 0.89-1.33) in the highest call-time decile. Conclusion Insomnia was slightly more common among mobile phone users in the highest call-time category, but adjustment for the considerably lower RF-EMF exposure from the UMTS than the GSM network suggests that this association is likely due to other factors associated with mobile phone use than RF-EMF. No association was observed for other sleep outcomes. In conclusion, findings from this study do not support the hypothesis that RF-EMF from mobile phone use has long-term effects on sleep quality. Open access paper: sciencedirect.com

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 directionmixed

PopulationSwedish and Finnish adult participants in the COSMOS cohort

Sample size24169

ExposureRF · baseline operator-recorded use; sleep outcomes at baseline and 4-year follow-up

Evidence strengthModerateConfidence: 78% · Peer reviewed: yes

Main findings

Outcomes measured

sleep disturbance
sleep adequacy
daytime somnolence
sleep latency
insomnia

View raw extracted JSON

{
  "study_type": "cohort",
  "exposure": {
    "band": "RF",
    "source": "mobile phone",
    "frequency_mhz": null,
    "sar_wkg": null,
    "duration": "baseline operator-recorded use; sleep outcomes at baseline and 4-year follow-up"
  },
  "population": "Swedish and Finnish adult participants in the COSMOS cohort",
  "sample_size": 24169,
  "outcomes": [
    "sleep disturbance",
    "sleep adequacy",
    "daytime somnolence",
    "sleep latency",
    "insomnia"
  ],
  "main_findings": "Operator-recorded mobile phone use at baseline was not associated with most sleep outcomes over follow-up. In the highest decile of call-time (>258 min/week), insomnia had OR 1.24 (95% CI 1.03–1.51), but after weighting call-time for lower RF-EMF exposure on UMTS (3G) vs GSM (2G), the OR was 1.09 (95% CI 0.89–1.33).",
  "effect_direction": "mixed",
  "limitations": [],
  "evidence_strength": "moderate",
  "confidence": 0.78,
  "peer_reviewed_likely": "yes",
  "keywords": [
    "COSMOS",
    "mobile phone use",
    "operator-recorded",
    "RF-EMF",
    "sleep quality",
    "insomnia",
    "MOS sleep questionnaire",
    "GSM",
    "UMTS",
    "prospective cohort"
  ],
  "suggested_hubs": [
    {
      "slug": "who-icnirp",
      "weight": 0.2,
      "reason": "Addresses RF-EMF health outcomes (sleep) relevant to major exposure guideline discussions."
    }
  ]
}

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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: 10.1016/j.envint.2020.105687
PubMed: Not supplied

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