Interphone Study Group. Validation of short term recall of mobile phone use for the Interphone study.
Vrijheid M, Cardis E, Armstrong BK, Auvinen A, Berg G, Blaasaas KG, Brown J, Carroll M, Chetrit A, Christensen HC, Deltour I, Feychting M, Giles GG, Hepworth SJ, Hours M, Iavarone I, Johansen C, Klaeboe L, Kurttio P, Lagorio S, Lonn S, McKinney PA, Montestrucq L, Parslow RC, Richardson L, Sadetzki S, Salminen T, Schuz J, Tynes T, Woodward A; · 2006
View Original AbstractMemory errors in phone use reporting may mask real cancer risks in major mobile phone health studies.
Plain English Summary
Researchers tracked actual mobile phone use in 672 volunteers across 11 countries using operator records and software-modified phones, then compared this to what people remembered six months later. The study found that people's memories were moderately accurate but contained significant errors - light users underestimated their phone use while heavy users overestimated it. This memory bias weakens the ability of cancer studies to detect real health risks from mobile phone radiation.
Why This Matters
This validation study exposes a critical flaw in mobile phone health research that has profound implications for how we interpret cancer risk studies. The Interphone study, one of the largest investigations into mobile phone-brain cancer links, relied on people accurately remembering their phone use - but this research shows that memory is systematically biased. Light users underestimate their exposure while heavy users overestimate it, creating what researchers call 'substantial random error.' What this means for you is that many studies claiming no cancer risk may have been handicapped from the start by poor exposure data. When you can't accurately measure the dose, you can't reliably assess the health effect. The science demonstrates that this memory bias would make it harder to detect real cancer risks even if they exist, potentially leading to false reassurance about mobile phone safety.
Exposure Information
Specific exposure levels were not quantified in this study.
Study Details
To validate short term recall of mobile phone use within Interphone, an international collaborative case control study of tumours of the brain, acoustic nerve, and salivary glands related to mobile telephone use.
Mobile phone use of 672 volunteers in 11 countries was recorded by operators or through the use of s...
Correlations between recalled and actual phone use were moderate to high (ranging from 0.5 to 0.8 ac...
Volunteer subjects recalled their recent phone use with moderate systematic error and substantial random error. This large random error can be expected to reduce the power of the Interphone study to detect an increase in risk of brain, acoustic nerve, and parotid gland tumours with increasing mobile phone use, if one exists.
Show BibTeX
@article{m_2006_interphone_study_group_validation_2667,
author = {Vrijheid M and Cardis E and Armstrong BK and Auvinen A and Berg G and Blaasaas KG and Brown J and Carroll M and Chetrit A and Christensen HC and Deltour I and Feychting M and Giles GG and Hepworth SJ and Hours M and Iavarone I and Johansen C and Klaeboe L and Kurttio P and Lagorio S and Lonn S and McKinney PA and Montestrucq L and Parslow RC and Richardson L and Sadetzki S and Salminen T and Schuz J and Tynes T and Woodward A;},
title = {Interphone Study Group. Validation of short term recall of mobile phone use for the Interphone study.},
year = {2006},
url = {https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC2078087/},
}