Mobile phone use and risk of glioma in adults: case-control study.
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OBJECTIVE: To investigate the risk of glioma in adults in relation to mobile phone use. DESIGN: Population based case-control study with collection of personal interview data. SETTING: Five areas of the United Kingdom. PARTICIPANTS: 966 people aged 18 to 69 years diagnosed with a glioma from 1 December 2000 to 29 February 2004 and 1716 controls randomly selected from general practitioner lists. MAIN OUTCOME MEASURES: Odds ratios for risk of glioma in relation to mobile phone use. RESULTS: The overall odds ratio for regular phone use was 0.94 (95% confidence interval 0.78 to 1.13). There was no relation for risk of glioma and time since first use, lifetime years of use, and cumulative number of calls and hours of use. A significant excess risk for reported phone use ipsilateral to the tumour (1.24, 1.02 to 1.52) was paralleled by a significant reduction in risk (0.75, 0.61 to 0.93) for contralateral use. CONCLUSIONS: Use of a mobile phone, either in the short or medium term, is not associated with an increased risk of glioma. This is consistent with most but not all published studies. The complementary positive and negative risks associated with ipsilateral and contralateral use of the phone in relation to the side of the tumour might be due to recall bias. (+info)
Cellular phones, cordless phones, and the risks of glioma and meningioma (Interphone Study Group, Germany).
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The widespread use of cellular telephones has generated concern about possible adverse health effects, particularly brain tumors. In this population-based case-control study carried out in three regions of Germany, all incident cases of glioma and meningioma among patients aged 30-69 years were ascertained during 2000-2003. Controls matched on age, gender, and region were randomly drawn from population registries. In total, 366 glioma cases, 381 meningioma cases, and 1,494 controls were interviewed. Overall use of a cellular phone was not associated with brain tumor risk; the respective odds ratios were 0.98 (95% confidence interval (CI): 0.74, 1.29) for glioma and 0.84 (95% CI: 0.62, 1.13) for meningioma. Among persons who had used cellular phones for 10 or more years, increased risk was found for glioma (odds ratio = 2.20, 95% CI: 0.94, 5.11) but not for meningioma (odds ratio = 1.09, 95% CI: 0.35, 3.37). No excess of temporal glioma (p = 0.41) or meningioma (p = 0.43) was observed in cellular phone users as compared with nonusers. Cordless phone use was not related to either glioma risk or meningioma risk. In conclusion, no overall increased risk of glioma or meningioma was observed among these cellular phone users; however, for long-term cellular phone users, results need to be confirmed before firm conclusions can be drawn. (+info)
Texting decreases the time to treatment for genital Chlamydia trachomatis infection.
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OBJECTIVE: To assess the effectiveness of a text message result service within an inner London sexual health clinic. METHOD: Demographic data, diagnoses, and time to diagnosis and treatment were collected over a 6 month period for patients receiving text messages and a matched standard recall group. Data on messages sent, staff time, and cost in relation to result provision were collected. RESULTS: Over a 6 month period 952 text messages were sent. In the final month of analysis, 33.9% of all clinic results were provided by text, resulting in a saving of 46 hours of staff time per month. 49 messages requested that the patient return for treatment, 28 of these patients had untreated genital Chlamydia trachomatis (CT) infection. The mean number of days (SD) to diagnosis was significantly shorter in the text message group (TG) v the standard recall group (SG) (7.9 (3.6) v 11.2 (4.7), p <0.001). The median time to treatment was 8.5 days (range 4-27 days) for the TG group v 15.0 (range 7-35) for SG, p = 0.005. CONCLUSION: Patients with genital CT infection are diagnosed and receive treatment sooner since the introduction of a text message result service. The introduction of this service has resulted in a significant saving in staff time. (+info)
An evaluation of digital cellular handsets by hearing aid users.
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Audible interference from digital cellular telephones (cell phones) has been a long standing problem for hearing aid users. The Federal Communications Commission (FCC) has lifted the hearing aid compatibility exception on cell phones and imposed a set of requirements effective September 2005. We conducted an experiment to determine how well hearing aid wearers are able to use commercially available digital cell phones. Hearing aid users evaluated the usability of six digital cellular handsets. The results suggest that certain transmission technologies create more annoyance from interference than others and that the type of hearing aid-to-telephone coupling (microphone or telecoil) can influence a user's experience of interference. However, the results also suggest that interference alone does not fully predict the usability of a cell phone for hearing aid users. These findings have implications for the American National Standards Institute C63.19 test and measurement standard that is used to rate cell phones' compliance with the FCC ruling and the education of consumers with regard to their expectations for cell phone use. (+info)
Are some people sensitive to mobile phone signals? Within participants double blind randomised provocation study.
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OBJECTIVE: To test whether people who report being sensitive to mobile phone signals have more symptoms when exposed to a pulsing mobile signal than when exposed to a sham signal or a non-pulsing signal. DESIGN: Double blind, randomised, within participants provocation study. SETTING: Dedicated suite of offices at King's College London, between September 2003 and June 2005. PARTICIPANTS: 60 "sensitive" people who reported often getting headache-like symptoms within 20 minutes of using a global system for mobile communication (GSM) mobile phone and 60 "control" participants who did not report any such symptoms. INTERVENTION: Participants were exposed to three conditions: a 900 MHz GSM mobile phone signal, a non-pulsing carrier wave signal, and a sham condition with no signal present. Each exposure lasted for 50 minutes. MAIN OUTCOME MEASURES: The principal outcome measure was headache severity assessed with a 0-100 visual analogue scale. Other outcomes included six other subjective symptoms and participants' ability to judge whether a signal was present. RESULTS: Headache severity increased during exposure and decreased immediately afterwards. However, no strong evidence was found of any difference between the conditions in terms of symptom severity. Nor did evidence of any differential effect of condition between the two groups exist. The proportion of sensitive participants who believed a signal was present during GSM exposure (60%) was similar to the proportion who believed one was present during sham exposure (63%). CONCLUSIONS: No evidence was found to indicate that people with self reported sensitivity to mobile phone signals are able to detect such signals or that they react to them with increased symptom severity. As sham exposure was sufficient to trigger severe symptoms in some participants, psychological factors may have an important role in causing this condition. TRIAL REGISTRATION: ISRCTN81432775. (+info)
Frequent computer-related activities increase the risk of neck-shoulder and low back pain in adolescents.
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BACKGROUND: Neck-shoulder pain (NSP) and low back pain (LBP) increased among adolescents in the 1990s and the beginning of 2000. A potential risk factor for this increase is the use of information and communication technology. We studied how the use of computers, the Internet, and mobile phones, playing digital games and viewing television are related to NSP and LBP in adolescents. METHODS: Mailed survey with nationally representative samples of 14-, 16-, and 18-year-old Finns in 2003 (n = 6003, response rate 68%). The outcome variables were weekly NSP and LBP. RESULTS: NSP was perceived by 26% and LBP by 12%. When compared with non-users, the risk of NSP was 1.3 (adjusted odds ratios) when using computers > 2-3 h/day, and 1.8 when using 4-5 h/day; 2.5 when using computers > or = 42 h/week, and 1.7 when using the Internet > or = 42 h/week. Compared with non-users, the risk of LBP was 2.0 when using computers > 5 h/day, 1.7 when using > or = 42 h/week, 1.8 when using the Internet > or = 42 h/week, and 2.0 when playing digital games > 5 h/day. Times spent on digital gaming, viewing television, and using mobile phones were not associated with NSP, nor were use of mobile phones and viewing television with LBP after adjusting for confounding factors. CONCLUSIONS: Frequent computer-related activities are an independent risk factor for NSP and LBP. Daily use of computers exceeding 2-3 h seems to be a threshold for NSP and exceeding 5 h for LBP. Computer-related activities may explain the increase of NSP and LBP in the 1990s and the beginning of 2000. (+info)
R U OK 2 TXT 4 RESEARCH?--feasibility of text message communication in primary care research.
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BACKGROUND: Young people have led the recent rise in prevalence of text message usage, which is increasingly used in clinical settings. OBJECTIVE: To assess the feasibility and acceptability of text message communication as a research tool in clinical research. METHODS: One hundred and ten consecutive young patients aged 16-24 years were recruited in four general practices (one inner urban, one outer urban, one rural and one university practice) in Victoria and interviewed before the consultation. If the patients had a mobile phone, they were asked to provide their mobile phone number so that following the medical consultation they could receive a single question, via text message, about their satisfaction with the consultation. RESULTS: Ninety-one percent of patients participated: 87 of 96 (91%) had a mobile phone and 85 of 87 agreed to provide their phone number for the purpose of research. There was no influence of practice sociodemographic characteristics. DISCUSSION: Text messaging is a feasible and acceptable method of communication for research purposes with young people attending primary care. (+info)
How dangerous are mobile phones, transmission masts, and electricity pylons?
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Electrical power and mobile communications deliver enormous benefit to society, but there are concerns whether the electric and magnetic field (EMF) emissions associated with the delivery of this benefit are linked to cancer or other health hazards. This article reviews the strength of the available epidemiological and laboratory evidence and notes that this falls short of what is normally required to establish a causal link. However, because of scientific uncertainty a cautious approach is often advocated, but here, too, there may be a tendency to judge these risks more harshly than those in other areas with similar strength of evidence. (+info)