The effects of recall errors and of selection bias in epidemiologic studies of mobile phone use and cancer risk

Vrijheid, Martine; Deltour, Isabelle; Krewski, Daniel; Sanchez, Marie; Cardis, Elisabeth

doi:10.1038/sj.jes.7500509

Cited by 95 publications

(68 citation statements)

References 41 publications

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“…If there is a real association between mobile phone use and brain tumour risk, the nondifferential random errors that dominate this validation study would be expected to bias risk estimates towards the null (no effect), and increase their uncertainty, making it more likely that real associations would not be detected (Armstrong, 1990;Armstrong et al, 1992;Vrijheid et al, 2006b). However, such errors do not normally induce spurious associations if there is no true association between exposure and outcome (Armstrong, 1990).…”

Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 99%

“…Differential errors observed in longer term phone use could induce positive bias. We have observed in a simulation study that, in the presence of large random errors, systematic errors made very little additional impact on assumed risk estimates for continuous exposure indices (cumulative hours of phone use), even when relatively extreme systematic errors were modelled and when the systematic errors simulated differed between cases and controls (Vrijheid et al, 2006b). …”

Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 99%

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Recall bias in the assessment of exposure to mobile phones

Vrijheid

Armstrong

Bedard

et al. 2008

J Expo Sci Environ Epidemiol

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131

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Most studies of mobile phone use are case-control studies that rely on participants' reports of past phone use for their exposure assessment. Differential errors in recalled phone use are a major concern in such studies. INTERPHONE, a multinational case-control study of brain tumour risk and mobile phone use, included validation studies to quantify such errors and evaluate the potential for recall bias. Mobile phone records of 212 cases and 296 controls were collected from network operators in three INTERPHONE countries over an average of 2 years, and compared with mobile phone use reported at interview. The ratio of reported to recorded phone use was analysed as measure of agreement. Mean ratios were virtually the same for cases and controls: both underestimated number of calls by a factor of 0.81 and overestimated call duration by a factor of 1.4. For cases, but not controls, ratios increased with increasing time before the interview; however, these trends were based on few subjects with long-term data. Ratios increased by level of use. Random recall errors were large. In conclusion, there was little evidence for differential recall errors overall or in recent time periods. However, apparent overestimation by cases in more distant time periods could cause positive bias in estimates of disease risk associated with mobile phone use.

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Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Recall bias in the assessment of exposure to mobile phones

Vrijheid

Armstrong

Bedard

et al. 2008

J Expo Sci Environ Epidemiol

Self Cite

131

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show abstract

“…In that study, however, self-reported data on the use of mobile phones was used, which is of concern in case-control studies (Vrijheid et al 2006). …”

Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Cohort study on the effects of everyday life radio frequency electromagnetic field exposure on non-specific symptoms and tinnitus

Frei

Mohler

Braun‐Fahrländer

et al. 2012

Environment International

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Background: There is public concern regarding potential health effects of radio frequency electromagnetic fields (RF-EMF) exposure, as produced by mobile phones or broadcast transmitters. The objective of this study was to investigate the association between RF-EMF exposure and non-specific symptoms and tinnitus in a prospective cohort study. Methods:In 2008, 1375 randomly selected participants from Basel, Switzerland, were enrolled in a questionnaire survey with follow-up after one year (participation rate 82%). A score for somatic complaints (von Zerssen list) and headache (HIT-6) was assessed. Far-field environmental RF-EMF exposure was predicted using a validated prediction model.Regarding near-field exposure, self-reported mobile and cordless phone use as well as mobile phone operator data were collected. In multivariate regression models, we investigated whether exposure at baseline (cohort analysis) or changes in exposure between baseline and follow-up (change analysis) were related to changes in health scores.Results: For participants in the top decile of environmental far-field RF-EMF exposure at baseline, in comparison to participants exposed below the median value, the change in the von Zerssen-and HIT-6-scores between baseline and follow-up was -0.12 (95%-CI: -1.79 to 1.56) and -0.37 (95%-CI: -1.80 to 1.07) units, respectively. Exposure to near-field sources and a change in exposure between baseline and follow-up were not related to non-specific symptoms. Similarly, no association between RF-EMF exposure and tinnitus was observed. Conclusions:In this first cohort study using objective and well-validated RF-EMF exposure measures, we did not observe an association between RF-EMF exposure and non-specific symptoms or tinnitus.

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“…Thus, the design and performance of these studies, using the same core protocol, seem to be biased in certain respects. This has been discussed by others and us elsewhere (4,5,30,31). In a Danish Interphone study it was concluded that the cognitive function in brain tumour cases was affected leading to e.g.…”

Section: A ----------------------------------------------------------mentioning

confidence: 99%

“…Some articles have discussed methodological issues in the Interphone studies (30,31). The actual use of mobile phones was underestimated in light users and overestimated in heavy users.…”

Section: A ----------------------------------------------------------mentioning

confidence: 99%

Meta-analysis of long-term mobile phone use and the association with brain tumours

Hardell¹,

Carlberg²,

Söderqvist³

et al. 2008

Int J Oncol

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Abstract. We evaluated long-term use of mobile phones and the risk for brain tumours in case-control studies published so far on this issue. We identified ten studies on glioma and meta-analysis yielded OR = 0.9, 95% CI = 0.8-1.1. Latency period of ≥10-years gave OR = 1.2, 95% CI = 0.8-1.9 based on six studies, for ipsilateral use (same side as tumour) OR = 2.0, 95% CI = 1.2-3.4 (four studies), but contralateral use did not increase the risk significantly, OR = 1.1, 95% CI = 0.6-2.0. Meta-analysis of nine studies on acoustic neuroma gave OR = 0.9, 95% CI = 0.7-1.1 increasing to OR = 1.3, 95% CI = 0.6-2.8 using ≥10-years latency period (four studies). Ipsilateral use gave OR = 2.4, 95% CI = 1.1-5.3 and contralateral OR = 1.2, 95% CI = 0.7-2.2 in the ≥10-years latency period group (three studies). Seven studies gave results for meningioma yielding overall OR = 0.8, 95% CI = 0.7-0.99. Using ≥10-years latency period OR = 1.3, 95% CI = 0.9-1.8 was calculated (four studies) increasing to OR = 1.7, 95% CI = 0.99-3.1 for ipsilateral use and OR = 1.0, 95% CI = 0.3-3.1 for contralateral use (two studies). We conclude that this meta-analysis gave a consistent pattern of an association between mobile phone use and ipsilateral glioma and acoustic neuroma using ≥10-years latency period.

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The effects of recall errors and of selection bias in epidemiologic studies of mobile phone use and cancer risk

Cited by 95 publications

References 41 publications

Recall bias in the assessment of exposure to mobile phones

Recall bias in the assessment of exposure to mobile phones

Cohort study on the effects of everyday life radio frequency electromagnetic field exposure on non-specific symptoms and tinnitus

Meta-analysis of long-term mobile phone use and the association with brain tumours

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