Hearing level and intensive use of mobile phones

Garcia Callejo FJ, Garcia Callejo F, Pena Santamaria J, Alonso Castaneira I, Sebastian Gil E, Marco Algarra J.

Acta Otorrinolaringol Esp. 56(5):187-191, 2005

[Article in Spanish]

INTRODUCTION: Wide studies and substantial controversies build on utilization of actual mobile phones and appearance of systemic disorders or even tumours, but there is no knowledge about an eventual involvement on early hearing loss.

PATIENTS AND METHODS: In a group of three hundred and twenty-three healthy and normoacoustic volunteers who were usual costumers of mobile phones an audiometric evaluation was made at the beginning of its use and three years later, inquiring about the periods of time per day and year employed on direct contacts with phone. A healthy and normoacoustic control group of non users was studied too.

RESULTS: Cases carried out 24.3 +/- 8.2 active contacts, reaching 50.4 +/- 27.8 days of mobile phone employment in three years.

Audiometric curve was similar in cases and controls at the beginning of the study. After this follow-up, cases showed an increase on hearing threshold between 1 and 5 dB HL more than controls in speech tones (p<0.001). Moreover, there was a trend to correlate time of phone use to hearing impairment, but this finding did not result statistically significative.

CONCLUSIONS: Frequent management of mobile phones in a middle period of time allows to detect a mild hearing loss, but the cause of this disorder keeps unclear.