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Meta-Analysis
. 2017 May 4;12(5):e0175136.
doi: 10.1371/journal.pone.0175136. eCollection 2017.

Mobile phone use and glioma risk: A systematic review and meta-analysis

Ming Yang  1 , WenWen Guo  2 , ChunSheng Yang  3 , JianQin Tang  4 , Qian Huang  2 , ShouXin Feng  1 , AiJun Jiang  1 , XiFeng Xu  1 , Guan Jiang  4
Affiliations
Meta-Analysis

Mobile phone use and glioma risk: A systematic review and meta-analysis

Ming Yang et al. PLoS One. .

Abstract

Objective: Many studies have previously investigated the potential association between mobile phone use and the risk of glioma. However, results from these individual studies are inconclusive and controversial. The objective of our study was to investigate the potential association between mobile phone use and subsequent glioma risk using meta-analysis.

Methods: We performed a systematic search of the Science Citation Index Embase and PubMed databases for studies reporting relevant data on mobile phone use and glioma in 1980-2016. The data were extracted and measured in terms of the odds ratio (OR) and 95% confidence interval (CI) using the random effects model. Subgroup analyses were also carried out. This meta-analysis eventually included 11 studies comprising a total 6028 cases and 11488 controls.

Results: There was a significant positive association between long-term mobile phone use (minimum, 10 years) and glioma (OR = 1.44, 95% CI = 1.08-1.91). And there was a significant positive association between long-term ipsilateral mobile phone use and the risk of glioma (OR = 1.46, 95% CI = 1.12-1.92). Long-term mobile phone use was associated with 2.22 times greater odds of low-grade glioma occurrence (OR = 2.22, 95% CI = 1.69-2.92). Mobile phone use of any duration was not associated with the odds of high-grade glioma (OR = 0.81, 95% CI = 0.72-0.92). Contralateral mobile phone use was not associated with glioma regardless of the duration of use. Similarly, this association was not observed when the analysis was limited to high-grade glioma.

Conclusions: Our results suggest that long-term mobile phone use may be associated with an increased risk of glioma. There was also an association between mobile phone use and low-grade glioma in the regular use or long-term use subgroups. However, current evidence is of poor quality and limited quantity. It is therefore necessary to conduct large sample, high quality research or better characterization of any potential association between long-term ipsilateral mobile phone use and glioma risk.

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Conflict of interest statement

Competing Interests: The authors have declared that no competing interests exist.

Figures

Fig 1
Fig 1. Study flow diagram.
Fig 2
Fig 2. Publication bias for for glioma.
OR, odds ratio; SE, standard error.
Fig 3
Fig 3. Mobile phone use and the risk of glioma.
Fig 4
Fig 4. Mobile phone use partial side and the risk of glioma.
Fig 5
Fig 5. Mobile phone use and the risk of low-grade glioma.
Fig 6
Fig 6. Mobile phone use and the risk of high-grade glioma.
See this image and copyright information in PMC

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