Validation of mobile phone use recall in the multinational MOBI-kids study

MOBI‐Kids consortium; Luuk van Wel; Anke Huss; Hans Kromhout; Franco Momoli; Daniel Krewski; Chelsea E Langer; Gemma Castaño-Vinyals; Michael Kundi; Milena Maule; Lucia Miligi; Siegal Sadetzki; Alex Albert; Juan Alguacil; Nuria Aragones; Francesc Badia; Revital Bruchim; Geertje Goedhart; Patricia de Llobet; Kosuke Kiyohara; Noriko Kojimahara; Brigitte Lacour; Maria Morales-Suarez-Varela; Katja Radon; Thomas Remen; Tobias Weinmann; Martine Vrijheid; Elisabeth Cardis; Roel Vermeulen

doi:10.1002/bem.22507

Validation of mobile phone use recall in the multinational MOBI-kids study

MOBI‐Kids consortium
, Luuk van Wel
, Anke Huss
, Hans Kromhout
, Franco Momoli
, Daniel Krewski
, Chelsea E Langer
, Gemma Castaño-Vinyals
, Michael Kundi
, Milena Maule
, Lucia Miligi
, Siegal Sadetzki
, Alex Albert
, Juan Alguacil
, Nuria Aragones
, Francesc Badia
, Revital Bruchim
, Geertje Goedhart
, Patricia de Llobet
, Kosuke Kiyohara

Noriko Kojimahara, Brigitte Lacour, Maria Morales-Suarez-Varela, Katja Radon, Thomas Remen, Tobias Weinmann, Martine Vrijheid, Elisabeth Cardis, Roel Vermeulen

University of Ottawa
ISGlobal Institute de Salut Global Barcelona
Medical University of Vienna
University of Turin
Prevention and Research Institute (ISPRO)
The Gertner Institute
Consortium for Biomedical Research in Epidemiology and Public Health (CIBER Epidemiología y Salud Pública-CIBERESP)
Utrecht University
Tokyo Women's Medical University
French National Registry of Childhood Solid Tumors
University Hospital
Paris South University

Research output: Contribution to journal › Article › Academic › peer-review

Abstract

Potential differential and non-differential recall error in mobile phone use (MPU) in the multinational MOBI-Kids case-control study were evaluated. We compared self-reported MPU with network operator billing record data up to 3 months, 1 year, and 2 years before the interview date from 702 subjects aged between 10 and 24 years in eight countries. Spearman rank correlations, Kappa coefficients and geometric mean ratios (GMRs) were used. No material differences in MPU recall estimates between cases and controls were observed. The Spearman rank correlation coefficients between self-reported and recorded MPU in the most recent 3 months were 0.57 and 0.59 for call number and for call duration, respectively. The number of calls was on average underestimated by the participants (GMR = 0.69), while the duration of calls was overestimated (GMR = 1.59). Country, years since start of using a mobile phone, age at time of interview, and sex did not appear to influence recall accuracy for either call number or call duration. A trend in recall error was seen with level of self-reported MPU, with underestimation of use at lower levels and overestimation of use at higher levels for both number and duration of calls. Although both systematic and random errors in self-reported MPU among participants were observed, there was no evidence of differential recall error between cases and controls. Nonetheless, these sources of exposure measurement error warrant consideration in interpretation of the MOBI-Kids case-control study results on the association between children's use of mobile phones and potential brain cancer risk.

Original language	English
Pages (from-to)	313-328
Number of pages	16
Journal	Bioelectromagnetics
Volume	45
Issue number	7
Early online date	22 May 2024
DOIs	https://doi.org/10.1002/bem.22507
Publication status	Published - Oct 2024

Bibliographical note

Publisher Copyright:
© 2024 The Author(s). Bioelectromagnetics published by Wiley Periodicals LLC on behalf of Bioelectromagnetics Society.

Funding

We would like to thank all mobile phone operator companies contributing data in the various study regions. D. Krewski holds a Natural Sciences and Engineering Research Council of Canada Industrial Research Chair at the University of Ottawa, with CWTA as one of the industrial partners ( http://www.nserc-crsng.gc.ca/Chairholders-TitulairesDeChaire/Chairholder-Titulaire_eng.asp?pid=316 ). ISGlobal is a member of the CERCA Programme, Generalitat de Catalunya. The Japanese study center appreciates the generous support and advice offered. The Canadian study center would like to thank Fatima Kazoun for data collection and recruitment. The French coordination would like to thank St\u00E9phanie Bonnay, Brigitte Chazara, V\u00E9ronique Dimper, Fran\u00E7oise Du Mazel, Laila Heintz\u2010Benajar with the help of Vanessa Gros, Carine Jeunecourt, B\u00E9n\u00E9dicte Radal, Olivia Rick, C\u00E9line Sardano\u2010Garsi, and Xavier Schwall for their support in recruiting and interviewing participants. The French team would also like to thank the mobile operators for their collaboration in the validation study: Orange, Bouygues, SFR. The German study center would like to thank Swaantje Barth, Susanne Brilmayer, and Vanessa Kiessling for their valuable contributions. The Greek study center would like to thank Maria Karalexi, Evangelia Kontogeorgis and Elena Labropoulou for data collection and follow\u2010up of individuals. The Italian study center would like to thank all interviewers for data collection, Marco Gilardetti for data management, and regional coordinators (Enrica Migliore (Piemonte), Mariangela Farinotti (Lombardia), Sara Piro (Toscana), Francesco Marinelli and Stefania Curti (Emilia Romagna). The Spanish coordinating center would like to thank Alex Albert and Albert Dalmau for their invaluable technical support, and Eva Ferreras, Marta Cervantes, Rebeca S\u00E1nchez, Angeles Sierra for data collection and recruitment, and Carmen Caban for setting up the complex electronic database. We appreciate the enormous time and effort of the regional coordinators (Marta Cervantes, Eva Ferreras, Irene Gavidia, Rebeca S\u00E1nchez, Angeles Sierra, and Angela Zumel). The Dutch study center would like to thank Lutzen Portengen and Max Leenders for their support. All study centers thank the volunteers for their participation in the study. The research leading to these results has received funding from the Netherlands Organisation for Health Research and Development (ZonMw) under grant agreement numbers 85500022 and 85800001. The Korean IT R&D program of MSIP/IITP (B0138\u201016\u20101002, Study on the EMF exposure control in smart society, 2017\u20100\u201000961 and 2019\u20100\u201000102). Japanese participation in MOBI\u2010Kids is supported by the Ministry of Internal Affairs and Communications by Grants No. 0155\u20100007, 0155\u20100171, 0155\u20100087, and 0155\u20100139. The European Community's Seventh Framework Programme (FP7/2007\u20102013) under grant agreement number 22687 3\u2010 the MOBI\u2010Kids project and the European Commission grant 603794\u2010GERoNiMO project. The French National Agency for Sanitary Safety of Food, Environment and Labour (ANSES, contract FSRF2008\u20103), French National Cancer Institute (INCa), Pfizer Foundation and League against cancer. Italian participation in MOBI\u2010Kids is partially supported by a Ministry of Health grant (RF\u20102009\u20101546284). Canadian (Ottawa) participation in MOBI\u2010Kids is supported by a peer reviewed university\u2013industry partnership grant from the Canadian Institutes of Health Research (CIHR), with the Canadian Wireless Telecommunications Association (CWTA) serving as the industrial partner. Australian participation in MOBI\u2010Kids is supported by the Australian National Health and Medical Research Council with a 5\u2010year research grant (grant number: 546130 and Chief Investigators are: M.R. Sim, B. Armstrong, E. Milne and G. Benke). Austrian participation in MOBI\u2010Kids is partly supported by a grant from the Ministry of Science (GZ 651.415/001\u2010WF/V/2/2014). The German branch of MOBI\u2010Kids is partially supported by the Federal Office for Radiation Protection (BfS) under grant number 3609S30010. Greek participation is partially supported by ELKE (Special Account for Research Grants of the National and Kapodistrian University of Athens) and GGET (General Secretariat for Research and Technology). MOBI\u2010Kids India is supported by the Board of Research in Nuclear Sciences (BRNS). MOBI\u2010Kids New Zealand is supported by grants from Cure Kids New Zealand and the New Zealand Health Research Council. Spanish participation is partially supported by the Spanish Health Research Fund of the Carlos III National Institute for Health (FIS PI10/02981), the Spanish Ministry of Science and Innovation (MICCIN) (Eurosalud EUS2008\u201003626), the Andalusian Consejeria de Salud (PI\u20100317/2010), and Conselleria de Sanitat, Generalitat Valenciana under grant number 025/2010. ISGlobal is a member of the CERCA Programme, Generalitat de Catalunya. The funding sources had no role in: the study design; the collection, analysis, and interpretation of data; the writing of the report; and the decision to submit the article for publication. Mention of trade names or commercial products does not constitute an endorsement or recommendation for use. Canada (Ottawa) received financial support from the Canadian Wireless Telecommunications Association (CWTA) under the federal university\u2010industry research partnerships programs noted below, and provided access subscriber billing records with informed consent of Canadian study participants. The CWTA had no involvement in the design, conduct, analysis, or results interpretation. Michael Kundi serves as an expert witness for brain tumor epidemiology in a court case in Washington DC. The rest of the authors declare no conflict of interest.

Funders	Funder number
Cure Kids New Zealand
Ministerio de Ciencia e Innovación
National and Kapodistrian University of Athens
Canadian Wireless Telecommunications Association
French National Agency for Sanitary Safety of Food, Environment and Labour
Health Research Council of New Zealand
European Commission
Institut National Du Cancer
General Secretariat for Research and Innovation
Board of Research in Nuclear Sciences
Elkem
GGET
Canadian Institutes of Health Research
Conselleria de Sanitat Universal i Salut Pública
Ministry of Internal Affairs and Communications	0155‐0007, 0155‐0139, 0155‐0171, 0155‐0087
Ministry of Internal Affairs and Communications
Agence nationale de sécurité sanitaire de l’alimentation, de l’environnement et du travail	FSRF2008‐3
Agence nationale de sécurité sanitaire de l’alimentation, de l’environnement et du travail
Seventh Framework Programme	22687 3‐
Seventh Framework Programme
Andalusian Consejeria de Salud	PI‐0317/2010
Ministry of Health	RF‐2009‐1546284
Ministry of Health
Bundesamt für Strahlenschutz	3609S30010
Bundesamt für Strahlenschutz
Ministry of Science, ICT and Future Planning	GZ 651.415/001‐WF/V/2/2014
Ministry of Science, ICT and Future Planning
National Health and Medical Research Council	546130
National Health and Medical Research Council
Generalitat Valenciana	025/2010
Generalitat Valenciana
MICCIN	EUS2008‐03626
ZonMw	85800001, 85500022
ZonMw
Spanish Health Research Fund of the Carlos III National Institute for Health	FIS PI10/02981

UN SDGs

This output contributes to the following UN Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs)

SDG 3 Good Health and Well-being

Keywords

brain tumor
children
mobile phone use
recall bias
validation study

Access to Document

10.1002/bem.22507Licence: CC BY-NC

Bioelectromagnetics - 2024 - Wel - Validation of mobile phone use recall in the multinational MOBI‐kids studyFinal published version, 2.02 MBLicence: CC BY-NC

Cite this

MOBI‐Kids consortium, van Wel, L., Huss, A., Kromhout, H., Momoli, F., Krewski, D., Langer, C. E., Castaño-Vinyals, G., Kundi, M., Maule, M., Miligi, L., Sadetzki, S., Albert, A., Alguacil, J., Aragones, N., Badia, F., Bruchim, R., Goedhart, G., de Llobet, P., ... Vermeulen, R. (2024). Validation of mobile phone use recall in the multinational MOBI-kids study. Bioelectromagnetics, 45(7), 313-328. https://doi.org/10.1002/bem.22507

@article{61b85546bf6a43128868a1a4326a7e7f,

title = "Validation of mobile phone use recall in the multinational MOBI-kids study",

abstract = "Potential differential and non-differential recall error in mobile phone use (MPU) in the multinational MOBI-Kids case-control study were evaluated. We compared self-reported MPU with network operator billing record data up to 3 months, 1 year, and 2 years before the interview date from 702 subjects aged between 10 and 24 years in eight countries. Spearman rank correlations, Kappa coefficients and geometric mean ratios (GMRs) were used. No material differences in MPU recall estimates between cases and controls were observed. The Spearman rank correlation coefficients between self-reported and recorded MPU in the most recent 3 months were 0.57 and 0.59 for call number and for call duration, respectively. The number of calls was on average underestimated by the participants (GMR = 0.69), while the duration of calls was overestimated (GMR = 1.59). Country, years since start of using a mobile phone, age at time of interview, and sex did not appear to influence recall accuracy for either call number or call duration. A trend in recall error was seen with level of self-reported MPU, with underestimation of use at lower levels and overestimation of use at higher levels for both number and duration of calls. Although both systematic and random errors in self-reported MPU among participants were observed, there was no evidence of differential recall error between cases and controls. Nonetheless, these sources of exposure measurement error warrant consideration in interpretation of the MOBI-Kids case-control study results on the association between children's use of mobile phones and potential brain cancer risk.",

keywords = "brain tumor, children, mobile phone use, recall bias, validation study",

author = "\{MOBI‐Kids consortium\} and \{van Wel\}, Luuk and Anke Huss and Hans Kromhout and Franco Momoli and Daniel Krewski and Langer, \{Chelsea E\} and Gemma Casta{\~n}o-Vinyals and Michael Kundi and Milena Maule and Lucia Miligi and Siegal Sadetzki and Alex Albert and Juan Alguacil and Nuria Aragones and Francesc Badia and Revital Bruchim and Geertje Goedhart and \{de Llobet\}, Patricia and Kosuke Kiyohara and Noriko Kojimahara and Brigitte Lacour and Maria Morales-Suarez-Varela and Katja Radon and Thomas Remen and Tobias Weinmann and Martine Vrijheid and Elisabeth Cardis and Roel Vermeulen",

note = "Publisher Copyright: {\textcopyright} 2024 The Author(s). Bioelectromagnetics published by Wiley Periodicals LLC on behalf of Bioelectromagnetics Society.",

year = "2024",

month = oct,

doi = "10.1002/bem.22507",

language = "English",

volume = "45",

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MOBI‐Kids consortium, van Wel, L, Huss, A , Kromhout, H, Momoli, F, Krewski, D, Langer, CE, Castaño-Vinyals, G, Kundi, M, Maule, M, Miligi, L, Sadetzki, S, Albert, A, Alguacil, J, Aragones, N, Badia, F, Bruchim, R, Goedhart, G, de Llobet, P, Kiyohara, K, Kojimahara, N, Lacour, B, Morales-Suarez-Varela, M, Radon, K, Remen, T, Weinmann, T, Vrijheid, M, Cardis, E & Vermeulen, R 2024, 'Validation of mobile phone use recall in the multinational MOBI-kids study', Bioelectromagnetics, vol. 45, no. 7, pp. 313-328. https://doi.org/10.1002/bem.22507

TY - JOUR

T1 - Validation of mobile phone use recall in the multinational MOBI-kids study

AU - MOBI‐Kids consortium

AU - van Wel, Luuk

AU - Huss, Anke

AU - Kromhout, Hans

AU - Momoli, Franco

AU - Krewski, Daniel

AU - Langer, Chelsea E

AU - Castaño-Vinyals, Gemma

AU - Kundi, Michael

AU - Maule, Milena

AU - Miligi, Lucia

AU - Sadetzki, Siegal

AU - Albert, Alex

AU - Alguacil, Juan

AU - Aragones, Nuria

AU - Badia, Francesc

AU - Bruchim, Revital

AU - Goedhart, Geertje

AU - de Llobet, Patricia

AU - Kiyohara, Kosuke

AU - Kojimahara, Noriko

AU - Lacour, Brigitte

AU - Morales-Suarez-Varela, Maria

AU - Radon, Katja

AU - Remen, Thomas

AU - Weinmann, Tobias

AU - Vrijheid, Martine

AU - Cardis, Elisabeth

AU - Vermeulen, Roel

PY - 2024/10

Y1 - 2024/10

N2 - Potential differential and non-differential recall error in mobile phone use (MPU) in the multinational MOBI-Kids case-control study were evaluated. We compared self-reported MPU with network operator billing record data up to 3 months, 1 year, and 2 years before the interview date from 702 subjects aged between 10 and 24 years in eight countries. Spearman rank correlations, Kappa coefficients and geometric mean ratios (GMRs) were used. No material differences in MPU recall estimates between cases and controls were observed. The Spearman rank correlation coefficients between self-reported and recorded MPU in the most recent 3 months were 0.57 and 0.59 for call number and for call duration, respectively. The number of calls was on average underestimated by the participants (GMR = 0.69), while the duration of calls was overestimated (GMR = 1.59). Country, years since start of using a mobile phone, age at time of interview, and sex did not appear to influence recall accuracy for either call number or call duration. A trend in recall error was seen with level of self-reported MPU, with underestimation of use at lower levels and overestimation of use at higher levels for both number and duration of calls. Although both systematic and random errors in self-reported MPU among participants were observed, there was no evidence of differential recall error between cases and controls. Nonetheless, these sources of exposure measurement error warrant consideration in interpretation of the MOBI-Kids case-control study results on the association between children's use of mobile phones and potential brain cancer risk.

AB - Potential differential and non-differential recall error in mobile phone use (MPU) in the multinational MOBI-Kids case-control study were evaluated. We compared self-reported MPU with network operator billing record data up to 3 months, 1 year, and 2 years before the interview date from 702 subjects aged between 10 and 24 years in eight countries. Spearman rank correlations, Kappa coefficients and geometric mean ratios (GMRs) were used. No material differences in MPU recall estimates between cases and controls were observed. The Spearman rank correlation coefficients between self-reported and recorded MPU in the most recent 3 months were 0.57 and 0.59 for call number and for call duration, respectively. The number of calls was on average underestimated by the participants (GMR = 0.69), while the duration of calls was overestimated (GMR = 1.59). Country, years since start of using a mobile phone, age at time of interview, and sex did not appear to influence recall accuracy for either call number or call duration. A trend in recall error was seen with level of self-reported MPU, with underestimation of use at lower levels and overestimation of use at higher levels for both number and duration of calls. Although both systematic and random errors in self-reported MPU among participants were observed, there was no evidence of differential recall error between cases and controls. Nonetheless, these sources of exposure measurement error warrant consideration in interpretation of the MOBI-Kids case-control study results on the association between children's use of mobile phones and potential brain cancer risk.

KW - brain tumor

KW - children

KW - mobile phone use

KW - recall bias

KW - validation study

UR - https://www.scopus.com/pages/publications/85193990031

U2 - 10.1002/bem.22507

DO - 10.1002/bem.22507

M3 - Article

C2 - 38778512

SN - 0197-8462

VL - 45

SP - 313

EP - 328

JO - Bioelectromagnetics

JF - Bioelectromagnetics

IS - 7

ER -

Validation of mobile phone use recall in the multinational MOBI-kids study

Abstract

Bibliographical note

Funding

UN SDGs

Keywords

Access to Document

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