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Assessment of Effects of Chronic Mobile Phone Usage on Auditory Functions: A Study at a Tertiary Care Teaching Hospital in Northern India - PubMed

  • ️Tue Apr 01 2025

. 2024 Apr;76(2):1540-1548.

doi: 10.1007/s12070-023-04354-4. Epub 2023 Dec 2.

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Assessment of Effects of Chronic Mobile Phone Usage on Auditory Functions: A Study at a Tertiary Care Teaching Hospital in Northern India

Pallavi Saroch et al. Indian J Otolaryngol Head Neck Surg. 2024 Apr.

Abstract

Genuine concerns are being increased regarding potential health risks associated with the radiation exposure while using mobile devices. To study the effects of mobile phone usage on auditory functions. The detailed history of the patient was obtained with special emphasis on total cumulative usage [in years], average daily use [in minutes]. According to the years of exposure, subjects were divided into Group A (< 5 years of exposure) and Group B (> 5 years of exposure) and according to the average daily usage of mobile phones, subjects were divided into Group 1 (< 60 min daily usage) and Group 2 (> 60 min of daily usage). After that systemic examination was done. Audiological testing included pure tone audiometry (PTA) with extended high frequencies (0.250-12 kHz), Otoacoustic emissions (OAE) and Auditory Brainstem response (ABR) testing and middle latency response (MLR) were performed. Out of 100 subjects, maximum subjects (38%) in the present study were in the age group of 21-30 years with male: female ratio of 1.6:1. The main associated complaints in the subjects at the time of enrolment in the study included ear warmth (34%) followed by aural fullness (20%) and tinnitus (17%). In Group A, mild SNHL was seen in 3 (11.54%) subjects in whom 2 had > 60 min average daily use and 1 had < 60 min daily use. In Group B 19 (25.68%) subjects had mild SNHL out of which 6 were in Group 2 and 13 were in Group 1. In group B 2 (2.7%) subjects had moderate SNHL. Increase in latencies of Na and Pa were noted with prolonged and frequent exposure to mobile phones in MLR. It is advised to limit the usage of mobile phones so as to reduce the damage caused by EMRs to the auditory system.

Keywords: Auditory Brainstem response; Middle latency response; Otoacoustic emissions.

© Association of Otolaryngologists of India 2023. Springer Nature or its licensor (e.g. a society or other partner) holds exclusive rights to this article under a publishing agreement with the author(s) or other rightsholder(s); author self-archiving of the accepted manuscript version of this article is solely governed by the terms of such publishing agreement and applicable law.

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Conflict of interest statement

Conflict of interestThe authors have no conflict of interest to declare.

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