Mobile phone use and health symptoms in children

Bron: www.jfma-online.com/article/S0929-6646(14)00207-1/abstract .
9 aug. 2014

Journal of the Formosan Medical Association

Mobile phone use and health symptoms in children

Chang-Ta Chiu, Ya-Hui Chang, Chu-Chieh Chen, Ming-Chung Kogemail, Chung-Yi Lig
gThese two authors contributed equally to this study.
Received: November 16, 2013; Received in revised form: June 30, 2014; Accepted: July 1, 2014; Published Online: August 09, 2014
DOI: dx.doi.org/10.1016/j.jfma.2014.07.002
Publication stage: In Press Corrected Proof

Abstract

Background/purpose
To investigate the mobile phone (MP) use for talking in relation to health symptoms among 2042 children aged 11–15 years in Taiwan.

Methods
A nationwide, cross-sectional study, using the computer assisted telephone interview (CATI) technique, was conducted in 2009 to collect information on children's utilization of MPs and the perceived health symptoms reported by their parents.

Results
The overall prevalence of MP use in the past month was estimated at 63.2% 95% confidence interval (CI) = 61.1–65.3%. MP use was associated with a significantly increased adjusted odds ratio (AOR) for headaches and migraine (1.42, 95% CI = 1.12–1.81) and skin itches (1.84, 95% CI = 1.47–2.29). Children who regularly used MPs were also considered to have a health status worse than it was 1 year ago (β = 0.27, 95% CI = 0.17–0.37).

Conclusion
Although the cross-sectional design precludes the causal inference for the observed association, our study tended to suggest a need for more cautious use of MPs in children, because children are expected to experience a longer lifetime exposure to radiofrequency electromagnetic fields (RF-EMF) from MPs.

Keywords:
cross-sectional study, electromagnetic fields, exposure assessment, radiofrequency, subjective symptoms

Conflicts of interest: The authors have no conflicts of interest relevant to this article.

2014 Published by Elsevier Inc.



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