The risk of subjective symptoms in mobile phone users in Poland

Bron: www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/24692074
1 april 2014

Int J Occup Med Environ Health. 2014 Apr 1. (Epub ahead of print)

The risk of subjective symptoms in mobile phone users in Poland - An epidemiological study.

Szyjkowska A1, Gadzicka E, Szymczak W, Bortkiewicz A.
1Department of Work Physiology and Ergonomics, Nofer Institute of Occupational Medicine, Łódź, Poland, agatas@imp.lodz.pl.

Abstract

OBJECTIVES:
To assess the type and incidence of subjective symptoms related to the use of mobile phones in Polish users.

MATERIAL AND METHODS:
The study was conducted in 2005 using a questionnaire survey. Although it has been quite a long time, up to now, no such data have been published for Poland. The questionnaire consisted of 53 questions concerning sex, age, education, general health, characteristics of a mobile phone (hand-held, loud-speaking unit) as well as the habits associated with its use (frequency and duration of calls, text messages, etc.) and complaints associated with using a mobile phone.

RESULTS:
As many as 1800 questionnaires were sent. The response was obtained from 587 subjects aged 32.6±11.3 (48.9% women, 51.1% men); the age did not differ significantly between men and women. The subjects owned a cell phone for an average of 3 years. Majority of the respondents used the phone intensively, i.e. daily (74%) or almost daily (20%). Headaches were reported significantly more often by the people who talked frequently and long in comparison with other users (63.2% of the subjects, p = 0.0029), just like the symptoms of fatigue (45%, p = 0.013). Also, the feeling of warmth around the ear and directly to the auricle was reported significantly more frequently by the intensive mobile phone users, compared with other mobile phone users (47.3%, p = 0.00004 vs. 44.6%, p = 0.00063, respectively). Most symptoms appeared during or immediately after a call and disappeared within 2 h after the call. Continuous headache, persisting for longer than 6 h since the end of a call, was reported by 26% of the subjects.

CONCLUSIONS:
Our results show that the mobile phone users may experience subjective symptoms, the intensity of which depends on the intensity of use of mobile phones.



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