Article,
Headache in the international cohort study of mobile phone use and health (COSMOS) in the Netherlands and the United Kingdom
Contributors
Traini E.
0000-0002-9965-1203
(Corresponding author)
[1]
Vermeulen R.
0000-0003-4082-8163
[1]
Kromhout H.
0000-0002-4233-1890
[1]
Schuz J.
0000-0001-9687-2134
[4]
Feychting M.
0000-0002-5101-0060
[5]
Auvinen A.
0000-0003-1125-4818
[6]
[7]
Poulsen A.H.
0000-0003-4456-4169
[8]
Deltour I.
0000-0002-6602-6292
[4]
Muller D.C.
0000-0002-2350-0417
[2]
[3]
Tettamanti G.
0000-0002-5210-7219
[5]
Elliott P.
0000-0002-7511-5684
[2]
[3]
Huss A.
0000-0001-9268-1867
[1]
Affiliations
- [1] Utrecht University [NORA names: Netherlands; Europe, EU; OECD];
- [2] Imperial College London [NORA names: United Kingdom; Europe, Non-EU; OECD];
- [3] School of Public Health [NORA names: United Kingdom; Europe, Non-EU; OECD];
- [4] International Agency for Research on Cancer [NORA names: France; Europe, EU; OECD];
- [5] Karolinska Institutet [NORA names: Sweden; Europe, EU; Nordic; OECD];
(... more)
Abstract
Headache is a common condition with a substantial burden of disease worldwide. Concerns have been raised over the potential impact of long-term mobile phone use on headache due to radiofrequency electromagnetic fields (RF-EMFs). We explored prospectively the association between mobile phone use at baseline (2009–2012) and headache at follow-up (2015–2018) by analysing pooled data consisting of the Dutch and UK cohorts of the Cohort Study of Mobile Phone Use and Health (COSMOS) (N = 78,437). Frequency of headache, migraine, and information on mobile phone use, including use of hands-free devices and frequency of texting, were self-reported. We collected objective operator data to obtain regression calibrated estimates of voice call duration. In the model mutually adjusted for call-time and text messaging, participants in the high category of call-time showed an adjusted odds ratio (OR) of 1.04 (95 % CI: 0.94–1.15), with no clear trend of reporting headache with increasing call-time. However, we found an increased risk of weekly headache (OR = 1.40, 95 % CI: 1.25–1.56) in the high category of text messaging, with a clear increase in reporting headache with increasing texting. Due to the negligible exposure to RF-EMFs from texting, our results suggest that mechanisms other than RF-EMFs are responsible for the increased risk of headache that we found among mobile phone users.
