Table 8.
Associations between RF-EMF exposures and having a ‘Painful texting thumb’ (symptom)
| Symptom | Symptom categories (N for unadjusted model/N for adjusted model) | Exposure | Exposure categories (N for unadjusted model/N for adjusted model) | Unadjusted OR (95% CI) for each exposure category | Adjusted OR (95% CI) for each exposure category | Confounders in model |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Painful texting thumb |
No (268/212) |
Cordless calls > 10 minutes weekly |
0 (62/46) |
1 |
1 |
Cold/flu+ |
| 1 or 2 times weekly (44/40) |
1-2 (103/84) |
4.11 (1.16-14.54)* |
3.65 (0.99-13.53) |
Sex |
||
| 3 times to most (17/17) |
3-9 (84/65) |
3.88 (1.90-14.11) |
2.54 (0.66-9.83) |
Age |
||
| 10-120 (80/74) |
9.61 (2.77-33.42)** |
7.02 (1.93-25.53)* |
||||
| Painful texting thumb |
No, hardly ever (287/287) |
Minutes on cordless phone daily |
0- < 5 (147/147) |
1 |
1 |
Cold/flu+ |
| 1 or 2 weekly (42/42) |
5-15 (103/103) |
2.34 (1.17-4.71) |
2.26 (1.12-4.54) |
|||
| 3 or more times weekly (17/17) |
<15-240 (96/96) |
3.37 (1.73-6.57)** |
4.54 (1.62-6.19)** |
|||
| Painful texting thumb |
No, hardly ever (-/287) |
Cellphone calls >10 minutes weekly |
0 (-/274) |
Model invalid |
1 |
Cold/flu+ |
| 1 or 2 times weekly (-/45) |
1-6 (-/65) |
1.37 (0.70-2.70) |
Sex- ♂ |
|||
| 3 or more times weekly (-/19) |
7-35 (-/12) |
4.43 (1.27-15.44) |
Age |
|||
| Painful texting thumb |
No (157/157) |
Billed texts sent weekly |
0 (42/42) |
1 |
1 |
Cold/flu+ |
| 1 or 2 times weekly (27/27) |
1-99 (74/74) |
7.55 (0.96-59.3) |
6.39 (0.80-51.2) |
TV in bedroom |
||
| 3 to most of the time (10/10) |
100-499 (63/63) |
16.46 (2.14-126.3)* |
11.94 (1.52-94.1)* |
Age |
||
| 500+ (15/15) | 27.19 (2.99-247.4)* | 21.54 (2.24-207.5) |
Bold font Sig. p < 0.05; *Sig. p ≤ 0.01; **Sig. p ≤ 0.001; + positive association; - negative association; ♂male; ‘Model invalid’ means it did not meet the criteria outlined in the methods.