Redmayne Mary
School of Public Health and Preventive Medicine, Monash University, Melbourne, Victoria, Australia.
PLoS One. 2017 Jan 6;12(1):e0167996. doi: 10.1371/journal.pone.0167996. eCollection 2017.
Smartphones are now owned by most young adults in many countries. Installed applications regularly update while the phone is in standby. If it is kept near the body, this can lead to considerably higher exposure to radiofrequency electromagnetic radiation than occurred without internet access. Very little is known about current smartphone carrying habits of young women. This survey used an online questionnaire to ask about smartphone location under several circumstances to inform the power calculation for a women's health study. They were also asked about risk perceptions. Data was analysed using Pearson chi square. Three age categories were made: 15-20, 21-30, 31-40. Smartphones were generally kept on standby (96% by day, 83% at night). Of all participants, in the last week the most common locations of the phone when not in use or during passive use was off-body (86%), in the hand (58%), a skirt/trouser pocket (57%), or against the breast (15%). Pocket and near-the-breast storage were significant by age (χ215.04, p = 0.001 and χ210.96, p = 0.04, respectively), both positively influenced by the youngest group. The same influence lay in the association between holding the phone (χ211.082, p = 0.004) and pocket-storage (χ219.971, p<0.001) during passive use. For calls, 36.5% solely used the phone against the head. More than half kept the phone 20-50 cms from their head at night (53%), while 13% kept it closer than 20 cms. Many (36%) thought RF-EMR exposure was related to health problems while 16% did not. There was no relationship between thinking RF-EMR exposure causes health problems in general and carrying the phone against the upper or lower body (p = 0.69 and p = 0.212, respectively). However, calls with the phone against the head were positively related to perception of health risk (χ2 6.695, p = 0.035). Our findings can be used in the power calculation for a case-control study.
在许多国家,大多数年轻人都拥有智能手机。手机处于待机状态时,安装的应用程序会定期更新。如果将手机放在身体附近,这可能会导致比不使用互联网时更高的射频电磁辐射暴露。目前对于年轻女性使用智能手机的习惯知之甚少。这项调查使用在线问卷询问了在几种情况下智能手机的放置位置,以便为一项女性健康研究进行功效计算。参与者还被问及风险认知情况。数据采用Pearson卡方检验进行分析。划分了三个年龄组:15 - 20岁、21 - 30岁、31 - 40岁。智能手机通常处于待机状态(白天为96%,晚上为83%)。在所有参与者中,过去一周手机在不使用或被动使用时最常见的放置位置是不在身上(86%)、拿在手中(58%)、放在裙子/裤子口袋里(57%)或靠在胸前(15%)。口袋放置和靠近胸部放置在不同年龄组中有显著差异(卡方值分别为15.0⁴,p = 0.001和卡方值10.96,p = 0.04),均受到最年轻年龄组的正向影响。在被动使用手机时,手持手机(卡方值11.082,p = 0.004)和放在口袋里(卡方值19.971,p<0.001)之间也存在同样的影响关系。在打电话时,3⁶.⁵%的人只将手机靠在头上使用。超过一半的人晚上将手机保持在离头部20 - 50厘米的距离(53%),而13%的人将手机保持在离头部不到20厘米的距离。许多人(36%)认为射频电磁辐射暴露与健康问题有关,而16%的人则不这么认为。一般来说,认为射频电磁辐射暴露会导致健康问题与将手机放在上半身或下半身之间没有关系(p值分别为0.69和0.212)。然而,将手机靠在头上打电话与健康风险认知呈正相关(卡方值6.695,p = 0.035)。我们的研究结果可用于病例对照研究的功效计算。