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Brain & Nervous System

Mobile phone use, behavioural problems and concentration capacity in adolescents: A prospective study.

No Effects Found

Roser K, Schoeni A, Röösli M · 2016

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Long-term tracking of Swiss teens found no lasting behavioral or concentration effects from mobile phone use despite initial short-term associations.

Plain English Summary

Summary written for general audiences

Swiss researchers followed 439 adolescents aged 12-17 for one year to see if mobile phone use affected their behavior and concentration. While they found some short-term associations between phone use and behavioral problems, these disappeared when they tracked the teens over time. The study concluded that mobile phone radiation doesn't appear to cause lasting behavioral problems or concentration issues in adolescents.

Study Details

The aim of this study is to prospectively investigate whether exposure to radiofrequency electromagnetic fields (RF-EMF) emitted by mobile phones and other wireless communication devices is related to behavioural problems or concentration capacity in adolescents.

The HERMES (Health Effects Related to Mobile phonE use in adolescentS) study sample consisted of 439...

In the cross-sectional analyses behavioural problems were associated with several self-reported wire...

Cite This Study
Roser K, Schoeni A, Röösli M (2016). Mobile phone use, behavioural problems and concentration capacity in adolescents: A prospective study. Int J Hyg Environ Health. 219(8):759-769, 2016.
Show BibTeX
@article{k_2016_mobile_phone_use_behavioural_3335,
  author = {Roser K and Schoeni A and Röösli M},
  title = {Mobile phone use, behavioural problems and concentration capacity in adolescents: A prospective study. },
  year = {2016},
  
  url = {https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/27665258/},
}
PubMed: 27665258

Cited By (41 papers)

Quick Questions About This Study

A 2016 Swiss study following 439 adolescents for one year found no lasting connection between mobile phone use and behavioral problems. While researchers initially observed some short-term associations, these disappeared when they tracked teens over time, suggesting phone radiation doesn't cause behavioral issues.
Swiss researchers found no evidence that mobile phone radiation impairs concentration capacity in adolescents over time. Their year-long study of 439 teens aged 12-17 showed initial concentration associations disappeared in longitudinal analysis, indicating no lasting concentration effects.
The Swiss adolescent study suggests information bias and reverse causality explain short-term associations. Teens with existing problems may report higher phone use, creating false correlations that vanish when researchers track the same individuals over time.
The Swiss study found behavioral problems linked to self-reported phone use but not operator-recorded data, suggesting teens may inaccurately report usage. This highlights why objective exposure measurements are crucial for reliable EMF health research.
The Swiss research demonstrates cross-sectional studies can show false associations that disappear in longitudinal tracking. This suggests snapshot studies may overestimate phone radiation risks, while following the same people over time provides more reliable safety data.