Cell phone use and behavioural problems in young children
Divan HA, Kheifets L, Obel C, Olsen J · 2012
View Original AbstractChildren exposed to cell phones before and after birth showed 50% higher odds of behavioral problems at age 7.
Plain English Summary
Researchers tracked 29,000 children to age 7 and found those exposed to cell phones both during pregnancy and after birth had 50% higher odds of behavioral problems like hyperactivity. This suggests wireless radiation during critical development periods may affect children's brain development.
Why This Matters
This large-scale Danish study adds crucial weight to concerns about wireless radiation's impact on developing brains. The 50% increased risk of behavioral problems represents a substantial effect size that remained consistent even after accounting for numerous other factors that could influence child behavior. What makes this research particularly significant is that it replicated earlier findings in a completely separate group of children, strengthening confidence in the results. The reality is that children today face exponentially higher wireless radiation exposure than those in this study, which examined phone use patterns from over a decade ago when usage was far lower. The developing brain is uniquely vulnerable to environmental influences, and this research suggests we should be far more cautious about wireless device exposure during pregnancy and early childhood than current guidelines recommend.
Exposure Information
Specific exposure levels were not quantified in this study.
Study Details
To study Cell phone use and behavioural problems in young children.
To see if a larger, separate group of DNBC children would produce similar results after considering ...
The highest OR for behavioural problems were for children who had both prenatal and postnatal exposu...
The findings of the previous publication were replicated in this separate group of participants demonstrating that cell phone use was associated with behavioural problems at age 7 years in children, and this association was not limited to early users of the technology. Although weaker in the new dataset, even with further control for an extended set of potential confounders, the associations remained.
Show BibTeX
@article{ha_2012_cell_phone_use_and_1492,
author = {Divan HA and Kheifets L and Obel C and Olsen J},
title = {Cell phone use and behavioural problems in young children},
year = {2012},
url = {https://jech.bmj.com/content/66/6/524.short},
}