Use of TETRA personal radios and sickness absence in the Airwave Health Monitoring Study of the British police forces
File(s)
Published version
Author(s)
Type
Journal Article
Abstract
Background
Terrestrial Trunked Radio (TETRA) is used for radiocommunications among the British police forces.
Objectives
To investigate association of personal radio use and sickness absence among police officers and staff from the Airwave Health Monitoring Study.
Methods
Participant-level sickness absence records for 26 forces were linked with personal radio use for 32,102 participants. We used multivariable logistic regression to analyse TETRA usage in year prior to enrolment and sickness absence (lasting more than 7 or 28 consecutive days) in the following year and a zero-inflated negative binomial model for analyses of number of sickness absence episodes of any duration (‘spells’) over the same period. In secondary analyses, we looked at an extended period of observation among a sub-cohort with linked data over time, using Cox proportional hazards regression.
Results
Median personal radio use (year prior to enrolment) was 29.7 min per month (interquartile range 7.5, 64.7) among users. In the year following enrolment there were 25,655 sickness absence spells among 15,248 participants. There were similar risks of sickness absence lasting more than seven days among users and non-users, although among users risk was higher with greater use, odds ratio = 1.04 (95% confidence interval [CI] 1.02 to 1.06) per doubling of radio use. There was no association for sickness absence of more than 28 days. For sickness absence spells, risk was lower among users than non-users (incidence rate ratio = 0.91; 95% CI 0.75 to 1.11), again with higher risk among users for greater radio use. There was no association between radio use and sickness absence in secondary analyses.
Discussion
There were similar or lower risks of sickness absence in TETRA radio users compared with non-users. Among users, the higher risk of sickness absence with greater radio use may reflect working pattern differences among police personnel rather than effects of radiofrequency exposure.
Terrestrial Trunked Radio (TETRA) is used for radiocommunications among the British police forces.
Objectives
To investigate association of personal radio use and sickness absence among police officers and staff from the Airwave Health Monitoring Study.
Methods
Participant-level sickness absence records for 26 forces were linked with personal radio use for 32,102 participants. We used multivariable logistic regression to analyse TETRA usage in year prior to enrolment and sickness absence (lasting more than 7 or 28 consecutive days) in the following year and a zero-inflated negative binomial model for analyses of number of sickness absence episodes of any duration (‘spells’) over the same period. In secondary analyses, we looked at an extended period of observation among a sub-cohort with linked data over time, using Cox proportional hazards regression.
Results
Median personal radio use (year prior to enrolment) was 29.7 min per month (interquartile range 7.5, 64.7) among users. In the year following enrolment there were 25,655 sickness absence spells among 15,248 participants. There were similar risks of sickness absence lasting more than seven days among users and non-users, although among users risk was higher with greater use, odds ratio = 1.04 (95% confidence interval [CI] 1.02 to 1.06) per doubling of radio use. There was no association for sickness absence of more than 28 days. For sickness absence spells, risk was lower among users than non-users (incidence rate ratio = 0.91; 95% CI 0.75 to 1.11), again with higher risk among users for greater radio use. There was no association between radio use and sickness absence in secondary analyses.
Discussion
There were similar or lower risks of sickness absence in TETRA radio users compared with non-users. Among users, the higher risk of sickness absence with greater radio use may reflect working pattern differences among police personnel rather than effects of radiofrequency exposure.
Date Issued
2019-05-14
Date Acceptance
2019-05-10
Citation
Environmental Research, 2019, 175, pp.148-155
ISSN
0013-9351
Publisher
Elsevier
Start Page
148
End Page
155
Journal / Book Title
Environmental Research
Volume
175
Copyright Statement
© 2019 The Authors. Published by Elsevier Inc. This is an open access article under the CC BY license (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/BY/4.0/).
Sponsor
Home Office
Imperial College Healthcare NHS Trust- BRC Funding
Medical Research Council (MRC)
Medical Research Council (MRC)
Medical Research Council (MRC)
Cancer Research UK
Cancer Research UK
Grant Number
PG0484
RDF03
MR/L01341X/1
MR/L01632X/1
MR/L01632X/1
C57955/A24390
24390
Subjects
EMF
Police
Radiofrequency
Sickness absence
TETRA
03 Chemical Sciences
05 Environmental Sciences
06 Biological Sciences
Toxicology
Publication Status
Published
Date Publish Online
2019-05-14