Long-term effect of mobile phone use on sleep quality: results from the cohort study of mobile phone use and health (COSMOS)
File(s)
Published version
Author(s)
Type
Journal Article
Abstract
BACKGROUND: Effects of radiofrequency electromagnetic field exposure (RF-EMF) from mobile phone use on sleep quality has mainly been investigated in cross-sectional studies. The few previous prospective cohort studies found no or inconsistent associations, but had limited statistical power and short follow-up. In this large prospective cohort study, our aim was to estimate the effect of RF-EMF from mobile phone use on different sleep outcomes. MATERIALS AND METHODS: The study included Swedish (n = 21,049) and Finnish (n = 3120) participants enrolled in the Cohort Study of Mobile Phone Use and Health (COSMOS) with information about operator-recorded mobile phone use at baseline and sleep outcomes both at baseline and at the 4-year follow-up. Sleep disturbance, sleep adequacy, daytime somnolence, sleep latency, and insomnia were assessed using the Medical Outcome Study (MOS) sleep questionnaire. RESULTS: Operator-recorded mobile phone use at baseline was not associated with most of the sleep outcomes. For insomnia, an odds ratio (OR) of 1.24, 95% CI 1.03-1.51 was observed in the highest decile of mobile phone call-time (>258 min/week). With weights assigned to call-time to account for the lower RF-EMF exposure from Universal Mobile Telecommunications Service (UMTS, 3G) than from Global System for Mobile Communications (GSM, 2G) the OR was 1.09 (95% CI 0.89-1.33) in the highest call-time decile. CONCLUSION: Insomnia was slightly more common among mobile phone users in the highest call-time category, but adjustment for the considerably lower RF-EMF exposure from the UMTS than the GSM network suggests that this association is likely due to other factors associated with mobile phone use than RF-EMF. No association was observed for other sleep outcomes. In conclusion, findings from this study do not support the hypothesis that RF-EMF from mobile phone use has long-term effects on sleep quality.
Date Issued
2020-07
Date Acceptance
2020-03-23
Citation
Environment International, 2020, 140, pp.1-9
ISSN
0160-4120
Publisher
Elsevier
Start Page
1
End Page
9
Journal / Book Title
Environment International
Volume
140
Copyright Statement
© 2020 The Authors. Published by Elsevier Ltd. This is an open access article under the CC BY license (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/BY/4.0/).
Sponsor
Department of Health
Department of Health
Department of Health
Medical Research Council (MRC)
Identifier
https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/32276731
PII: S0160-4120(19)33919-4
Grant Number
Nil
RUM 27
PR-ST-0713-00003
MR/L01341X/1
Subjects
Cell phone
Cohort study
Electromagnetic fields
Insomnia
Sleep disturbance
Publication Status
Published
Coverage Spatial
Netherlands
Article Number
ARTN 105687
Date Publish Online
2020-04-08