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Cell phone exposures and hearing loss in children in the danish national birth cohort.

No Effects Found

Sudan M, Kheifets L, Arah OA, Olsen J. · 2013

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First major study hints at possible link between cell phone use and childhood hearing loss, but evidence remains too weak to draw firm conclusions.

Plain English Summary

Summary written for general audiences

Researchers followed over 52,000 Danish children to investigate whether cell phone use affects hearing. They found a weak association between cell phone use and hearing loss at age 7 - about 21-23% increased odds - but the researchers emphasized this finding could be due to various biases and isn't strong enough to conclude cell phones actually cause hearing problems.

Study Details

We investigated the association between cell phone use and hearing loss in children.

The Danish National Birth Cohort (DNBC) enrolled pregnant women between 1996 and 2002. Detailed inte...

Our analyses included data from 52 680 children. We observed weak associations between cell phone us...

Our findings could have been affected by various biases and are not sufficient to conclude that cell phone exposures have an effect on hearing. This is the first large-scale epidemiologic study to investigate this potentially important association among children, and replication of these findings is needed.

Cite This Study
Sudan M, Kheifets L, Arah OA, Olsen J. (2013). Cell phone exposures and hearing loss in children in the danish national birth cohort. Paediatr Perinat Epidemiol. 27(3):247-257, 2013.
Show BibTeX
@article{m_2013_cell_phone_exposures_and_3512,
  author = {Sudan M and Kheifets L and Arah OA and Olsen J.},
  title = {Cell phone exposures and hearing loss in children in the danish national birth cohort.},
  year = {2013},
  
  url = {https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/23574412/},
}
PubMed: 23574412

Cited By (37 papers)

Quick Questions About This Study

A large Danish study following 52,680 children found weak associations between prenatal cell phone exposure and hearing loss at age 7, with about 21-23% increased odds. However, researchers emphasized these findings could result from various biases and aren't strong enough to prove cell phones cause hearing problems.
The Danish National Birth Cohort study analyzed data from 52,680 children to investigate whether cell phone use affects hearing development. This represents the first large-scale epidemiological study examining the potential connection between cell phone exposure and hearing loss in children.
Research from Denmark's birth cohort found weak statistical associations but concluded the evidence isn't sufficient to prove cell phone exposures cause hearing effects. The study detected about 21-23% increased odds of hearing loss at age 7, but multiple biases could explain these findings.
The 2013 study by Sudan and colleagues found weak associations between cell phone use and childhood hearing loss but emphasized the results don't prove causation. Researchers noted various biases could affect their findings and called for replication studies to confirm the results.
The Danish study found borderline statistical significance with confidence intervals barely excluding no effect (odds ratios of 1.21-1.23 with intervals like 0.99-1.49). Researchers stressed these weak associations aren't sufficient evidence to conclude cell phones actually impact children's hearing development.