Department of Epidemiology and Public Health Environmental Exposures and Health Physical Hazards and Health Mobile phone use and memory in adolescents In the framework of the HERMES study (Health Effects Related to Mobile PhonE Use in AdolescentS) Anna Schoeni 1,2, Katharina Roser 1,2, and Martin Röösli 1,2 1 Swiss Tropical and Public Health Institute, Basel, Switzerland 2 University of Basel, Basel, Switzerland
ISEE-2015 – Anna Schoeni2 The authors declare they have no actual or potential competing financial interest. Project Number Funded by:
ISEE-2015 – Anna Schoeni3 Background Reliance on self-reported mobile phone call duration as exposure proxy Public Concern: Radiofrequency electromagnetic fields (RF-EMF) emitted by mobile phones and other sources may have negativ impacts on cognitive functions such as memory in adolescents. Aim: Investigate whether memory performance is affected by RF-EMF exposure -Self-reported data -Operator recorded data -RF-EMF exposure surrogate brain and whole body dose Cordless phones? Laptops/Tablets/computers? Broadcast transmitters? Mobile phone base stations?
ISEE-2015 – Anna Schoeni4 -Prospective cohort study in Central Switzerland years old Swiss adolescents -Baseline (2012/2013); Follow-up (2013/2014) -Written questionnaire: mobile phone use, health, sociodemographic data -Cognitive tests: verbal and figural memory -Operator data (6 months prior to baseline until follow-up) -Personal measurements HERMES (Health Effects Related to Mobile phonE use in adolescentS) upload.wikimedia.org
ISEE-2015 – Anna Schoeni5 Outcomes: Verbal and figural memory Subtest of IST (Intelligenz-Struktur-Test 2000R) Figural memoryVerbal memory
ISEE-2015 – Anna Schoeni6 Exposures: Usage measures - duration data traffic on mobile phone [min/d] - duration cordless phone calls [min/d] - duration mobile phone calls [min/d] - duration gaming [min/d] - texts sent [x/d] Self-reported: questionnaire - volume data traffic on mobile phone [MB/d] - duration mobile phone calls [min/d] - SMS sent [x/d] Objective: operator Usage related to RF-EMF exposure Usage not related to RF-EMF exposure (negative controls)
ISEE-2015 – Anna Schoeni7 Exposures: RF-EMF dose measures Brain dose Whole body dose ∑ Dose Dose= time x SAR* * SAR = specific absorbtion rate Roser et al., IJERPH 2015 Dose: absorbed energy per kg of body mass [mJ/kg/day] brain whole body
ISEE-2015 – Anna Schoeni8 Exposures: RF-EMF dose measures Self-reported data - Mobile phone call durations obtained from questionnaire Objective data -Mobile phone call durations from operator recorded data other durations self-reported!
ISEE-2015 – Anna Schoeni9 Usage Self-reported duration data traffic on mobile phone [min/d] duration cordless phone calls [min/d] duration mobile phone calls [min/d] Objective volume data traffic on mobile phone [MB/d] duration mobile phone calls [min/d] Negative controls Self-reported duration gaming [min/d] texts sent [x/d] Objective SMS sent [x/d] Dose Self-reported brain [mJ/kg/d] whole body [mJ/kg/d] Objective brain [mJ/kg/d] whole body [mJ/kg/d] Outcomes: Verbal and figural memory Exposures:
ISEE-2015 – Anna Schoeni10 Results: - Baseline: 439 students from 24 schools - Follow-up: 425 students (participation rate: 98.6%) - Objectively operator recorded data: 234 study participants - Follow-up investigation on average 12.5 months after baseline. Investigation of possible associations between changes in the figural and verbal memory performance score (follow-up minus baseline) with respect to usage related factors or RF-EMF dose.
ISEE-2015 – Anna Schoeni11 Associations between memory performance and usage related factors or doses: adjusted for age, sex, nationality, school level, physical activity, alcohol, education of parents, change in height and time between baseline and follow-up investigation. Figural memory: Various dose measures tended to be associated with figural memory. Verbal memory: No associations
ISEE-2015 – Anna Schoeni12 Associations between memory performance and brain doses considering laterality: adjusted for age, sex, nationality, school level, physical activity, alcohol, education of parents, change in height and time between baseline and follow-up investigation. macalester.edu VerbalFigural
ISEE-2015 – Anna Schoeni13 Associations between memory performance and Negative controls adjusted for age, sex, nationality, school level, physical activity, alcohol, education of parents, change in height and time between baseline and follow-up investigation. No significant associations between memory and negative controls.
ISEE-2015 – Anna Schoeni14 Conclusions: Changes in figural memory performance score over one year: tended to be decreased in relation to various RF-EMF dose measures but less so with respect to usage measures and no indications for a decrease with respect to negative control exposure variables (i.e. texting, gaming).
ISEE-2015 – Anna Schoeni15 Project Number
ISEE-2015 – Anna Schoeni16 Dose: self-reported [mJ/kg/d]Dose: objective [mJ/kg/d] brainwhole bodybrainwhole body Usage self-reported duration data traffic [min/d] duration cordless phone [min/d] duration mobile phone [min/d] objective volume data traffic [MB/d] duration mobile phone [min/d] Negative Controls self-reported duration gaming [min/d] texts sent [x/d] objective SMS sent [x/d] Correlations of usage related factors and the RF-EMF doses:
ISEE-2015 – Anna Schoeni17 n Medium exposure (>50% to ≤ 75%)High exposure (>75%) crude (95% CI)adjusted a (95% CI)crude (95% CI)adjusted a (95% CI) Cumulative Dose [mJ/kg/d] Verbal Memory self-reported brain (-1.51, -0.07)-0.74 (-1.48, 0.001)-0.12 (-0.86, 0.61)-0.15 (-0.94, 0.65) whole body (-1.26, 0.21)-0.40 (-1.16, 0.36)-0.14 (-0.87, 0.59)-0.13 (-0.91, 0.65) objective brain (-0.91, 1.03)-0.19 (-1.19, 0.81)0.64 (-0.35, 1.64)0.44 (-0.61, 1.49) whole body (-0.19, 1.77)0.75 (-0.25, 1.74)-0.08 (-1.06, 0.90)-0.23 (-1.25, 0.80) Figural Memory self-reported brain (-0.77, 0.73)-0.05 (-0.82, 0.72)-1.06 (-1.82, -0.29)-1.16 (-1.99, -0.34) whole body (-1.14, 0.38)-0.32 (-1.11, 0.47)-0.89 (-1.65, -0.14)-0.86 (-1.67, -0.05) objective brain (-1.21, 0.64)-0.28 (-1.25, 0.68)-1.49 (-2.44, -0.54)-1.62 (-2.63, -0.61) whole body (-0.89, 1.01)0.13 (-0.85, 1.12)-0.87 (-1.82, 0.07)-0.76 (-1.77, 0.25) a adjusted for age, sex, nationality, school level, physical activity, alcohol, education of parents, change in height and time between baseline and follow-up investigation.
ISEE-2015 – Anna Schoeni18 a adjusted for age, sex, nationality, school level, physical activity, alcohol, education of parents, change in height and time between baseline and follow-up investigation. n Medium exposure (>50% to ≤ 75%)High exposure (>75%) crude (95% CI)adjusted a (95% CI)crude (95% CI)adjusted a (95% CI) Usage related to EMF exposure Verbal Memory self-reported duration data traffic [min/d] (-0.71, 0.75)0.06 (-0.68, 0.81)0.32 (-0.40, 1.05)0.40 (-0.37, 1.17) duration cordless phone [min/d] (-0.81, 0.70)0.01 (-0.76, 0.77)-0.12 (-0.84, 0.60)-0.08 (-0.82, 0.66) duration mobile phone [min/d] (-0.88, 0.56)-0.14 (-0.87, 0.60)0.10 (-0.64, 0.84)0.13 (-0.68, 0.93) objective volume data traffic [MB/d] (-0.65, 1.26)0.40 (-0.56, 1.37)0.62 (-0.41, 1.64)0.64 (-0.40, 1.67) duration mobile phone [min/d] (-0.49, 1.43)0.46 (-0.54, 1.47)0.99 (-0.01, 1.99)0.96 (-0.13, 2.06) Figural Memory self-reported duration data traffic [min/d] (-0.58, 0.93)0.30 (-0.47, 1.08)0.26 (-0.51, 1.02)0.42 (-0.39, 1.23) duration cordless phone [min/d] (-0.47, 1.10)0.29 (-0.51, 1.08)-0.55 (-1.30, 0.19)-0.54 (-1.31, 0.22) duration mobile phone [min/d] (-0.96, 0.54)-0.18 (-0.94, 0.59)-0.51 (-1.29, 0.26)-0.52 (-1.36, 0.31) objective volume data traffic [MB/d] (-0.58, 1.27)0.38 (-0.57, 1.33)0.25 (-0.74, 1.24)0.44 (-0.58, 1.46) duration mobile phone [min/d] (-1.66, 0.19)-0.83 (-1.82, 0.16)-0.90 (-1.87, 0.07)-1.02 (-2.10, 0.05) Usage not related to EMF exposure (negative controls) Verbal Memory self-reported duration gaming [min/d] (-0.39, 1.09)0.42 (-0.37, 1.21)0.26 (-0.46, 0.98)0.56 (-0.34, 1.45) texts sent [x/d] (-0.59, 0.87)0.13 (-0.63, 0.88)0.36 (-0.37, 1.08)0.47 (-0.30, 1.25) objective SMS sent [x/d] (-0.66, 1.31)0.25 (-0.74, 1.25)0.19 (-0.80, 1.18)0.13 (-0.94, 1.20) Figural Memory self-reported duration gaming [min/d] (-1.19, 0.35)-0.28 (-1.10, 0.55)-0.40 (-1.16, 0.35)-0.14 (-1.08, 0.80) texts sent [x/d] (-0.52, 1.01)0.31 (-0.49, 1.10)0.26 (-0.50, 1.02)0.45 (-0.37, 1.27) objective SMS sent [x/d] (-2.15, -0.29)-1.27 (-2.22, -0.31)-0.38 (-1.33, 0.57)-0.30 (-1.34, 0.74)