Epidemiological study (observational study)

Mobile phone use and risk of glioma: a case-control study in Korea for 2002-2007 epidem.

By: Yoon S, Choi JW, Lee E, An H, Kim HS, Choi HD, Kim N

Published in: Environ Health Toxicol 2015; 30: e2015015

Aim of study (acc. to author)

A case-control study was conducted in Korea to investigate the association between mobile phone use and the development of gliomas.

Endpoint/type of risk estimation

brain tumor: glioma

Type of risk estimation:

incidence

(odds ratio (OR))

Exposure

- mobile communications
- mobile phone
- analog mobile phone
- digital mobile phone

Assessment

questionnaire: types of mobile phone (analog, digital), begin of use, number of daily calls, laterality of use, average call duration, location for carrying the mobile phone, mechanism (flip-, slide- or folder-type), monthly service fee
calculation: cumulative hours of use

Exposure groups

Group	Description
Reference group 1	mobile phone use: no
Group 2	mobile phone use: yes
Reference group 3	type of mobile phone: no
Group 4	type of mobile phone: analog
Group 5	type of mobile phone: analog and digital
Group 6	type of mobile phone: digital
Reference group 7	lifetime years of use: no use
Group 8	lifetime years of use: < 4 years
Group 9	lifetime years of use: 4 - 7 years
Group 10	lifetime years of use: > 7 years
Reference group 11	cumulative hours of use: no use
Group 12	cumulative hours of use: < 300 hours
Group 13	cumulative hours of use: 300 - 900 hours
Group 14	cumulative hours of use: > 900 hours
Reference group 15	monthly sevice fee: no use
Group 16	monthly sevice fee: < 30,000 Korean won
Group 17	monthly sevice fee: 30,000 - 49,000 Korean won
Group 18	monthly sevice fee: 50,000 - 80,000 Korean won
Group 19	monthly sevice fee: > 80,000 Korean won
Reference group 20	average daily receiving calls: no use
Group 21	average daily receiving calls: ≤ 2
Group 22	average daily receiving calls: 3 - 5
Group 23	average daily receiving calls: 6 - 9
Group 24	average daily receiving calls: ≥ 10
Reference group 25	average daily sending calls: no use
Group 26	average daily sending calls: ≤ 2
Group 27	average daily sending calls: 3 - 5
Group 28	average daily sending calls: 6 - 9
Group 29	average daily sending calls: ≥ 10
Reference group 30	average duration time: no use
Group 31	average duration time: ≤ 2 min
Group 32	average duration time: 3 - 4 min
Group 33	average duration time: ≥ 5 min
Reference group 34	mechanism: no use
Group 35	mechanism: flip-type
Group 36	mechanism: folder-type
Group 37	mechanism: sliding-type
Reference group 38	carriage: no use
Group 39	carriage: in bag
Group 40	carriage: hung by neck
Group 41	carriage: in shirt
Group 42	carriage: in pants
Group 43	carriage: at hand

Population

Group:
- men
- women
Age: 15–69 years
Observation period: 2002 - 2007
Study location: Korea

Case group

Characteristics: glioma

Control group

Selection:
- hospital-based
Matching:
- sex
- age
- case:control = 1:1

Study size

	Cases	Controls
Eligible	897	1,051
Evaluable	285	285

Statistical analysis method:

unconditional logistic regression

(adjustment:

age
sex
residential area
education
interview partner, use of hair dye, alcohol consumption, use of computer and electric blanket

)

Results (acc. to author)

Overall, no significant association was observed between gliomas and regular use of mobile phones and different types of exposure measures. For ipsilateral use, a statistically non-significant increase was found for lifetime years of use and cumulative hours of use (OR 1.25, CI 0.55-2.88 and OR 1.77, CI 0.32-1.84, respectively). However, the contralateral users showed slightly lower risk than ipsilateral users.
The authors conclude that results do not support the hypothesis that the use of mobile phones increases the risk of glioma.

Limitations (acc. to author)

Selection bias and recall bias cannot be excluded.

Study funded by

ICT R&D program of MSIP/IITP (Ministry of Science, ICT and Future Planning/Institute for Information & Communications Technology Promotion), Korea

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