Epidemiological study (observational study)

Synoptic Analysis of Epidemiologic Evidence of Glioma Risk from Mobile Phones epidem.

By: Leitgeb N

Published in: J Electromagn Anal 2015; 7 (9): 233-243

Aim of study (acc. to author)

A synoptic analysis was conducted on all data from epidemiological case-control studies on the association between mobile phone use and glioma published since 2001. In this new synoptic approach, all available risk estimates (odds ratios) of the identified studies were presented and analyzed without further selection criteria such as the size of the study or exposure metric.

Further details

Following 16 studies were included: Inskip et al. 2001, Auvinen et al. 2002, Lönn et al. 2005, Hardell et al. 2006, Hardell et al. 2006, Hepworth et al. 2006, Schüz et al. 2006, Hours et al. 2007, Klaeboe et al. 2007, Lahkola et al. 2007, Schlehofer et al. 2007, Takebayashi et al. 2008, Hardell et al. 2011, Swerdlow al. 2011, Hardell et al. 2013 and Coureau et al. 2014.
Allover ORs of the publications and 1) the number of exposed cases, 2) the cumulated years of use, 3) cumulated call time and 4)cumulated number of calls were presented in figures.
A synoptic analysis of all brain tumor types and mobile phone use was published by Leitgeb (2014).

Endpoint/type of risk estimation

brain tumor: glioma

Type of risk estimation:

incidence

Exposure

- mobile communications
- mobile phone

Population

Group:
- men
- women
Characteristics: glioma
Study location: Sweden, Finland, Norway, Denmark, Germany, France, UK, USA, Japan

Results (acc. to author)

Two quite different data pools could be identified with numerous studies from one single research group (the Swedish Hardell group) opposing all other national and international studies.
The analysis of different dose-related parameters (e.g. cumulated use time, cumulated call time and cumulated number of calls) and the pattern of all pooled data do not support the assumption of a glioma risk of long-term and/or heavy mobile phone users. With increasing statistical power (i.e. number of the exposed cases) the risk estimates converge towards a reduced health risk (OR 0.8). In spite of worrying differences among some epidemiological studies, overall, the synoptic analysis of the entire body of data supports reassuring rather than alarming conclusions on glioma risks from mobile phone use even in long-term and/or heavy users.

Study funded by

not stated/no funding

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