Analysis of mobile phone use among young patients with brain tumors in Japan

Abstract

The purpose of this study was to clarify ownership and usage of mobile phones among young patients with brain tumors in Japan. The subjects of this study were patients with brain tumors diagnosed between 2006 and 2010 who were between the ages of 6 and 18 years. The target population for the analysis was 82 patients. Patients were divided into two groups: 16 patients who were mobile phone owners 1 year before diagnosis, and 66 patients who did not own mobile phones (non-owners). Using data on the mobile phone ownership rate obtained from three general-population surveys, we calculated the expected number of mobile phone owners. The three age-adjusted standardized ownership ratios were 0.83 (95% confidence interval [CI]: 0.56-1.22), 0.51 (95% CI: 0.24-1.04), and 0.75 (95% CI: 0.42-1.32). The mobile phone ownership prevalence among the young Japanese patients with brain tumors in the current study does not differ from available estimates for the general population of corresponding age. However, since the use of mobile phones among children is increasing annually, investigations into the health effects of mobile phone use among children should continue. Bioelectromagnetics. 38:349-355, 2017. © 2017 Wiley Periodicals, Inc.

Analysis of ear side of mobile phone use in the general population of Japan

“…Epidemiological research on mobile phone use is currently being conducted worldwide [INTERPHONE Study Group, 2010, 2011 and in Japan [Takebayashi et al, 2006[Takebayashi et al, , 2008Sato et al, 2011Sato et al, , 2016Sato et al, , 2017. The incidence of brain tumors is 7.0 per 100,000 population in the U.S. [Ostrom et al, 2015] and 2.4 per 100,000 population in Japan [Hori et al, 2015;National Cancer Center Japan, 2017].…”

Comments on analysis of mobile phone use among young patients with brain tumors in Japan

“…I write to comment on the article by Sato et al [] entitled, “Analysis of Mobile Phone Use Among Young Patients With Brain Tumors in Japan” published in Bioelectromagnetics . The article describes the ownership and usage of mobile phones among young patients with brain tumors in Japan.…”

“…The authors concluded that mobile phone ownership prevalence among young Japanese patients with brain tumors did not differ from available estimates for the general population of corresponding age. The paper authored by Sato et al [] has some major shortcomings.…”

“…Plotting the data authors presented in Table 2 of their article (see Sato et al, ). a ) location of tumor (left or right) in owners and non‐owners, b ) location of tumor (supratentorial or infratentorial) in owners and non‐owners.…”

“…Furthermore, while some published reports indicate that the carcinogenic effect of mobile phone radiation is more prominent for long‐term exposures (e.g., >5 or 10 years), Sato et al [] grouped their participants based on having or not having mobile phones only one year before diagnosis: “For analysis, patients were divided into 16 patients who were mobile phone owners 1 year before diagnosis and 66 patients who did not own mobile phones (non‐owners).” In this light, Prasad et al [] have recently provided evidence showing an association between mobile phone use and brain tumors, especially in people who used their mobile phones for more than 10 years. Bortkiewicz et al [] have also recently performed a meta‐analysis and reported that their findings supported the hypothesis that long‐term use of mobile phones was linked to increased risk of intracranial tumors.…”