Having high blood pressure significantly increases the risk of heart attack or stroke and is considered one of the leading causes of premature death worldwide, but despite its dangers, high blood pressure affects around 1.3 billion people. of people from 30 to 79 years. A new study has now linked mobile phone use for 30 minutes or more a week with a 12% increased risk of high blood pressure compared to using it for less than 30 minutes.
Mobile phones emit low levels of radio frequency energy and this has been linked to increases in blood pressure after brief exposure. It is currently estimated that almost three-quarters of people aged 10 years or older have a mobile phone, so the study’s findings – which have been published in the European Heart Journal-Digital Health, belonging to the European Society of Cardiology (ESC )– are relevant to public health.
“It’s the number of minutes people spend talking on a mobile phone that matters for heart health, and more minutes means higher risk,” says study author Professor Xianhui Qin of Southern Medical University in Guangdong, China. “Years of use or use of a hands-free setup did not influence the likelihood of developing high blood pressure. Further studies are needed to confirm the findings.”
How the increased use of mobile phones influences the development of hypertension
The researchers assessed the relationship between making and receiving phone calls and new-onset hypertension using data from the UK Biobank, which included 212,046 adults aged 37 to 73 years without hypertension (mean age 54 years and 62% women). ). Information about their use of the mobile phone to make and receive calls was obtained through a touch screen questionnaire that they answered at the beginning of the study, which included the years of use, the hours per week and the use of a hands-free device/ speaker phone.
“Talking on a mobile phone may not affect the risk of developing high blood pressure as long as weekly calling time is kept below half an hour”
Participants who used a mobile phone at least once a week to make or receive calls were defined as mobile phone users. The researchers analyzed the relationship between mobile phone use and new-onset hypertension taking into account factors that could influence such as age, gender, body mass index, race, family history of hypertension, education, smoking, blood pressure, lipids and blood glucose, inflammation, kidney function, and use of medications to lower blood cholesterol or glucose levels.
During a median follow-up of 12 years, 13,984 participants (7%) developed hypertension. Mobile phone users had a 7% increased risk of hypertension compared to non-users. Those who talked on their mobile phones for 30 minutes or more per week were 12% more likely to have new-onset high blood pressure than participants who talked for less than 30 minutes. The results were similar for women and men.
Compared with participants who spent less than 5 minutes per week making or receiving mobile phone calls, weekly usage time of 30-59 minutes, 1-3 hours, 4-6 hours, and more than six hours was associated with a 8%, 13%, 16%, and 25% increased risk of high blood pressure, respectively. Among mobile phone users, years of use and use of a hands-free/speakerphone device were not significantly associated with the development of hypertension.
The researchers also examined the relationship between wear time (less than 30 minutes vs. 30 minutes or more) and new-onset hypertension based on whether participants were at low, intermediate, or high genetic risk of developing this condition. and they verified that the probability of developing hypertension was greater in individuals with high genetic risk who spent at least 30 minutes a week talking on the cell phone: they were 33% more likely to have hypertension compared to people with low genetic risk who they used it less than 30 minutes a week.
“Our findings suggest that talking on a mobile phone may not affect the risk of developing high blood pressure as long as weekly calling time is kept below half an hour. More research is required to replicate the results, but until then it seems prudent to keep mobile phone calls to a minimum to preserve heart health,” Qin concludes.
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