Mobile phone use and acoustic neuroma risk in Japan

Toru Takebayashi ¹, Suminori Akiba ², Yuriko Kikuchi ¹, Masao Taki ³, Kanako Wake ⁴, Soichi Watanabe ⁴ and Naohito Yamaguchi ^5*

¹ Keio University School of Medicine, Japan
² Kagoshima University Graduate School of Medical and Dental Sciences, Japan
³ Tokyo Metropolitan University, Japan
⁴ National Institute of Information and Communications Technology, Japan
⁵ Tokyo Women's Medical University, Japan

^* To whom correspondence should be addressed. E-mail: yamaguch{at}research.twmu.ac.jp.

Accepted 4 August 2006

Abstract

Objectives: The rapid increase of mobile phone use has increased public concern about its possible health effects in Japan, where the mobile phone system is unique in terms of the characteristics of the signal transmission. To examine the relationship between mobile phone use and acoustic neuroma, a case-control study was initiated. Methods: The study followed the common, core protocol of the international collaborative study, INTERPHONE study. A prospective case recruitment was done in Japan for 2000-2004. One hundred and one acoustic neuroma cases, who were 30-69 years of age and resided in the Tokyo area, and 339 age-, sex-, and residency-matched controls were interviewed using a common computer-assisted personal interview system. Education- and marital status-adjusted odds ratio was calculated with a conditional logistic regression analysis. Results: Fifty-one cases (52.6%) and 192 controls (58.2%) were regular mobile phone users on the reference date, which was set as 1 year before the diagnosis, and no significant increase of acoustic neuroma risk was observed, with the odds ratio (OR) being 0.73 (95% confidence interval : 0.43-1.23). No exposure-related increase in the risk of acoustic neuroma was observed when the cumulative length of use (<4 years, 4-8 years, >8years) or cumulative call time (<300 h, 300-900 h, >900h) was used as an exposure index. The OR was 1.09 (95%CI:0.58-2.06) when the reference date was set as 5 years before the diagnosis. Further, laterality of mobile phone use was not associated with tumors. Conclusions: These results suggest that there is no significant increase in the risk of acoustic neuroma in association with mobile phone use in Japan.

Keywords: acoustic neuroma, case-control study, epidemiology, mobile phone

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