Use of wireless telephones and self-reported health symptoms: a population-based study among Swedish adolescents aged 15–19 years

Abstract

BackgroundDespite the last years of rapid increase in use of wireless phones little data on the use of these devices has been systematically assessed among young persons. The aim of this descriptive cross-sectional study was to assess use of wireless phones and to study such use in relation to explanatory factors and self-reported health symptoms.MethodsA postal questionnaire comprising 8 pages of 27 questions with 75 items in total was sent to 2000 Swedish adolescents aged 15–19 years and selected from the population registry using a stratified sampling scheme.ResultsThe questionnaire was answered by 63.5% of the study subjects. Most participants reported access to a mobile phone (99.6%) and use increased with age; 55.6% of the 15-year-olds and 82.2% of the 19-year-olds were regular users. Girls generally reported more frequent use than boys. Use of wired hands-free equipment 'anytime' was reported by 17.4%. Cordless phones were used by 81.9%, and 67.3% were regular users. Watching TV increased the odds ratio for use of wireless phones, adjusted for age and gender. Some of the most frequently reported health complaints were tiredness, stress, headache, anxiety, concentration difficulties and sleep disturbances. Regular users of wireless phones had health symptoms more often and reported poorer perceived health than less frequent users.ConclusionAlmost all adolescence in this study used a wireless phone, girls more than boys. The most frequent use was seen among the older adolescents, and those who watched TV extensively. The study further showed that perceived health and certain health symptoms seemed to be related to the use of wireless phones. However, this part of the investigation was explorative and should therefore be interpreted with caution since bias and chance findings due to multiple testing might have influenced the results. Potentially this study will stimulate more sophisticated studies that may also investigate directions of associations and whether, or to what degree, any mediation factors are involved.

Mobile phone use, behavioural problems and concentration capacity in adolescents: A prospective study

“…Though, these relations were neither seen for objectively recorded mobile phone call duration nor for the SDQ Parents total difficulties.Concentration capacity of the adolescents was negatively associated with several self-reported and objectively recorded use and dose measures in the cross-sectional analysis. These cross-sectional findings are in line with other cross-sectional studies on self-reported concentration difficulties and mobile and cordless phone use (Söderqvist et al 2008) and measured concentration performance and number of mobile phone calls ). But they contradict a study in students from Hong Kong where mobile phone users showed a better performance in one of three cognitive tasks measuring attention (Lee et al 2001).…”

“…In Sweden, concentration difficulties were among the most frequent reported health complaints in adolescents (Söderqvist et al 2008) and in Germany, 32% of the adolescents participating in a measurement study reported to have concentration problems (Heinrich et al 2010). In Chinese adolescents, the prevalence of inattention was reported to be as high as 70% (Zheng et al 2014).…”

“…In the highest exposure group (4 th quartile) the risk for overall behavioural problems (adjusted OR = 2.2; 95% CI: 1.1 -4.5) and conduct problems (adjusted OR = 3.7; 95% CI: 1.6 -8.4) was found to be elevated. A Swedish study found the duration of mobile phone and cordless phone calls associated with self-reported concentration difficulties in adolescents (Söderqvist et al 2008) and the number of mobile phone calls was associated with impaired attention performance in Australian adolescents ). In contrast, measured RF-EMF exposure and duration of mobile phone use were not associated with acute concentration problems in 1,508 German adolescents (Heinrich et al 2010) and mobile phone calls were not found to be associated with ADHD symptoms in 2,422…”

Gender and Sleep Health in High School Students: A Cross-Cultural Study

“…These findings are consistent with other studies indicating that females experience worse sleep health than males during adolescence (Merikanto, Lahti, Puusniekka, & Partonen, 2013;Munezawa et al 2010;Pecor et al, 2016;Söderqvist, Carlberg, & Hardell, 2008). Much of this difference is likely attributable to menarche and the onset of menstruation (Johnson et al, 2006).…”

Mobile Phone Usage and its Health Effects Among Adults in a Semi-Urban Area of Southern India

“…Similarly, in a prospective cohort study done in Sweden among young adult men and women, sleep disturbance was found to associate with mobile phone usage [12]. In another study from Sweden among adolescents, they found that the prevalence of tiredness, headache and sleep disturbances was high among frequent mobile users [13].…”