Regular Mobile Phone Use and Incident Cardiovascular Diseases: Mediating Effects of Sleep Patterns, Psychological Distress, and Neuroticism.

BACKGROUND

The relationship between mobile phone use and incident cardiovascular disease (CVD) is uncertain. We aimed to examine the association of regular mobile phone use with incident CVD and explore the mediating effects of sleep and mental health.

METHODS

A total of 444,027 individuals from the UK Biobank without a history of CVD were included. Regular mobile phone use was defined as at least 1 call per week. Weekly mobile phone usage time was self-reported as the average time of calls per week over the previous 3 months. The primary outcome was incident CVD. The secondary outcomes included each component of CVD and increased carotid intima-media thickness (CIMT). We applied Cox proportional hazard models to assess the association between mobile phone use and incident CVD, and mediation analyses to investigate the role of sleep patterns, psychologic distress, and neuroticism.

RESULTS

In a median follow-up period of 12.3 years, 56,181 individuals developed incident CVD. Compared with nonregular mobile phone users, regular mobile phone users had a significantly higher risk of incident CVD (hazard ratio 1.04, 95% confidence interval 1.02-1.06) and increased CIMT (odds ratio 1.11, 95% CI 1.04-1.18). Among regular mobile phone users, weekly mobile phone usage time was positively associated with the risk of incident CVD, especially in current smokers (P for interaction = 0.001) and diabetic individuals (P for interaction = 0.037). Of the relationship between weekly mobile phone usage time and incident CVD, 5.11% was mediated by sleep patterns, 11.5% by psychological distress, and 2.25% by neuroticism.

CONCLUSIONS

Weekly mobile phone usage time was positively associated with incident CVD risk, which was partly explained by poor sleep, psychologic distress, and neuroticism.