Effects of Mobile Phones on Auditory Acuity

<p><strong>Background and Objectives: </strong>There is an exponential increase in the usage of mobile phones throughout the world. Mobile phone handsets are usually held near the ear during conversations and these phones emit radiations (electromagnetic fields). These radiations have a propensity to cause biological health hazards. This has raised the question of whether the usage of mobile phones has any detrimental effects on the hearing of the user. The aim of this study was to evaluate the auditory acuity in normal subjects using mobile phones and subjects not using.</p> <p><strong>Methods: </strong>A total 400 subjects were selected considering inclusion and exclusion criteria. Among these 300 were mobile users and 100 non-users. These two groups were subjected to pure tone audiometric assessment. The resulting data was statistically analyzed.</p> <p><strong>Results: </strong>There was an increase in the hearing thresholds with p-value &lt;0.05 at frequencies of lkhz (BC), 4khz (AC and BC), 6khz(AC) and 8khz(AC) in the mobile phone users compared to that in non-users. The thresholds in the dominant ear were increased with p-value &lt;0.05 at frequencies lkhz(AC and BC), 2khz(AC and BC), 4khz(AC and BC), 6khz(AC) that compared in non-dominant ear. The different duration of exposures (in months) and the average time (min/day) exposures did not have any significant effect on the hearing thresholds.</p> <p><strong>Conclusion: </strong>There is a mild increase in the hearing thresholds in mobile users, but the probable cause of hearing impairment cannot be proved by this study and the possible pathophysiology is also not understood and it needs to be investigated further... Key words: Mobile phones, electromagnetic fields (EMF), Pure tone audiometry, Air conduction (AC), Bone conduction (BC).</p>