Risk of Accidents or Chronic Disorders From Improper Use of Mobile Phones: A Systematic Review and Meta-analysis

Problematic smartphone use and mental health outcomes among Singapore residents: The health and lifestyle survey

BACKGROUND

The excessive use of smartphones and its association with adverse outcomes has been widely reported, with several studies showing an association between smartphone overuse, depression, anxiety, and sleep-related problems.

METHODS

The study used data from the Health and Lifestyle Survey, a nationwide population survey. It examined the prevalence of Problematic Smartphone Use (PSU) and its association with mental health outcomes among Singapore residents aged 15-65 years.

PARTICIPANTS

Participants were assessed for PSU using the Smartphone Addiction Scale-Short Version, psychological distress with the Patient Health Questionnaire-9, and Generalised Anxiety Disorder -7 questionnaire, sleep problems using the Insomnia Severity Index, and positive mental health with Rapid Positive Mental Health Instrument.

RESULTS

In all, 6509 participants completed the survey, giving a survey response rate of 73.2 %. The prevalence of PSU was 30.2 % in the population. Individuals with PSU were more likely to have symptoms of moderate or severe depression (OR: 3.2, 95 % CI: 2.4-4.4), anxiety (OR: 3.4, 95 % CI: 2.4-4.8), insomnia (OR: 3.4, 95 % CI: 2.8-4.2), and poorer positive mental health (β: -0.3, 95 % CI: -0.4 to -0.2).

CONCLUSIONS

The study is the first to examine PSU in a national sample of Singaporeans across a wide age range. It provides valuable insights into mental health comorbidities among those with PSU, which is useful for practitioners.

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.

A tree-based corpus annotated with Cyber-Syndrome, symptoms, and acupoints

Prolonged and over-excessive interaction with cyberspace poses a threat to people's health and leads to the occurrence of Cyber-Syndrome, which covers not only physiological but also psychological disorders. This paper aims to create a tree-shaped gold-standard corpus that annotates the Cyber-Syndrome, clinical manifestations, and acupoints that can alleviate their symptoms or signs, designating this corpus as CS-A. In the CS-A corpus, this paper defines six entities and relations subject to annotation. There are 448 texts to annotate in total manually. After three rounds of updating the annotation guidelines, the inter-annotator agreement (IAA) improved significantly, resulting in a higher IAA score of 86.05%. The purpose of constructing CS-A corpus is to increase the popularity of Cyber-Syndrome and draw attention to its subtle impact on people's health. Meanwhile, annotated corpus promotes the development of natural language processing technology. Some model experiments can be implemented based on this corpus, such as optimizing and improving models for discontinuous entity recognition, nested entity recognition, etc. The CS-A corpus has been uploaded to figshare.

An umbrella review of the benefits and risks associated with youths' interactions with electronic screens

The influence of electronic screens on the health of children and adolescents and their education is not well understood. In this prospectively registered umbrella review (PROSPERO identifier CRD42017076051 ), we harmonized effects from 102 meta-analyses (2,451 primary studies; 1,937,501 participants) of screen time and outcomes. In total, 43 effects from 32 meta-analyses met our criteria for statistical certainty. Meta-analyses of associations between screen use and outcomes showed small-to-moderate effects (range: r = -0.14 to 0.33). In education, results were mixed; for example, screen use was negatively associated with literacy (r = -0.14, 95% confidence interval (CI) = -0.20 to -0.09, P ≤ 0.001, k = 38, N = 18,318), but this effect was positive when parents watched with their children (r = 0.15, 95% CI = 0.02 to 0.28, P = 0.028, k = 12, N = 6,083). In health, we found evidence for several small negative associations; for example, social media was associated with depression (r = 0.12, 95% CI = 0.05 to 0.19, P ≤ 0.001, k = 12, N = 93,740). Limitations of our review include the limited number of studies for each outcome, medium-to-high risk of bias in 95 out of 102 included meta-analyses and high heterogeneity (17 out of 22 in education and 20 out of 21 in health with I2 > 50%). We recommend that caregivers and policymakers carefully weigh the evidence for potential harms and benefits of specific types of screen use.

Mobile phone calls, genetic susceptibility, and new-onset hypertension: results from 212 046 UK Biobank participants

Aims

The relationship between mobile phone use for making or receiving calls and hypertension risk remains uncertain. We aimed to examine the associations of mobile phone use for making or receiving calls and the use frequency with new-onset hypertension in the general population, using data from the UK Biobank.

Methods and results

A total of 212 046 participants without prior hypertension in the UK Biobank were included. Participants who have been using a mobile phone at least once per week to make or receive calls were defined as mobile phone users. The primary outcome was new-onset hypertension. During a median follow-up of 12.0 years, 13 984 participants developed new-onset hypertension. Compared with mobile phone non-users, a significantly higher risk of new-onset hypertension was found in mobile phone users [hazards ratio (HR), 1.07; 95% confidence interval (CI): 1.01-1.12]. Among mobile phone users, compared with those with a weekly usage time of mobile phones for making or receiving calls <5 mins, significantly higher risks of new-onset hypertension were found in participants with a weekly usage time of 30-59 mins (HR, 1.08; 95%CI: 1.01-1.16), 1-3 h (HR, 1.13; 95%CI: 1.06-1.22), 4-6 h (HR, 1.16; 95%CI: 1.04-1.29), and >6 h (HR, 1.25; 95%CI: 1.13-1.39) (P for trend <0.001). Moreover, participants with both high genetic risks of hypertension and longer weekly usage time of mobile phones making or receiving calls had the highest risk of new-onset hypertension.

Conclusions

Mobile phone use for making or receiving calls was significantly associated with a higher risk of new-onset hypertension, especially among high-frequency users.

Mobile Phone Use, Genetic Susceptibility and New-Onset Chronic Kidney Diseases

Objective: To examine the associations of mobile phone use and its use characteristics with new-onset CKD. Methods: 408,743 participants without prior CKD in the UK Biobank were included. The primary outcome was new-onset CKD. Results: During a median follow-up of 12.1 years, 10,797 (2.6%) participants occurred CKD. Compared with mobile phone non-users, a significantly higher risk of new-onset CKD was found in mobile phone users (HR = 1.07; 95% CI: 1.02-1.13). Moreover, among mobile phone users, compared with participants with weekly usage time of mobile phone making or receiving calls <30 min, a significantly higher risk of new-onset CKD was observed in those with usage time ≥30 min (HR = 1.12; 95% CI: 1.07-1.18). Moreover, participants with both high genetic risks of CKD and longer weekly usage time of mobile phones had the highest risk of CKD. Similar results were found using the propensity score matching methods. However, there were no significant associations of length of mobile phone use, and hands-free device/speakerphone use with new-onset CKD among mobile phone users. Conclusion: Mobile phone use was significantly associated with a higher risk of new-onset CKD, especially in those with longer weekly usage time of mobile phones making or receiving calls. Our findings and the underlying mechanisms should be further investigated.